i r ffi ,, l K ' V n(ii i| i ' ! |i '|, ;!; ■ > . 







I : 



I ' 



FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 



OF THE ORGANIZATION OF THE 



FRANKLIN INSTITUTE 



A.D. 1824 TO 1874. 



COMMEMORATIVE EXERCISES 



FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 



FRANKLIN INSTITUTE 

OF THE STATE OF PENNSYLVANIA FOR THE 
PROMOTION OF THE MECHANIC ARTS. 



HELD ON FRIDAY EVENING, FEBRUAEY 6, 1874, 



MUSICAL FUND HALL. 



PHILADELPHIA: 
HALL OF THE INSTITUTE 

SEVENTH STREET BELOW MARKET STRFET. 

1874. 






Ott 

Oancfie lastitntioa 
Handbook Office. 
DEC 3 ISW 



COLLINS, PRINTKR, 
705 Javne Street. 



INTRODUCTION. 



At the stated meeting of the Franklin Institute, held 
in December, 1873, the president called attention to the 
fact that an entry in the first minute book showed that 
during the latter part of the year 1823 preliminary meet- 
ings were held in the city of Philadelphia, which led to 
the foundation of the Institute during the early part of 
1824. He stated that the propriety of some formal 
recognition by the Society of the completion of its first 
fifty years had been discussed among some of its older 
members. Upon motion of Mr. Hector Orr, a resolution 
was passed, appointing a committee to consist of five 
members, including the president of the Institute, as 
chairman, to devise and carry out an appropriate cele- 
bration of the Anniversary. The committee consisted 
of Messrs. Coleman Sellers, Hector Orr, Frederick 
Fraley, Bloomfield H. Moore, and William P. Tatham. 

The meeting which had been held on Februarj^ 5, 1824, 
having been decided on as the one which most surelv 
marked the permanent foundation of the Institute as a 
societ}', it was deemed advisable, if possible, to hold 
the commemorative meeting on that day ; but inasmuch 
as no suitable hall could be obtained for the evening of 



6 

the 5tli of February, the following day, namely, the r.th, 
was fixed upon ; and at the meeting of the Institute in 
January, it was resolved that "When we adjourn we 
adjourn to meet at the Musical Fund Hall, on the even- 
ing of February 6th." 

The meeting was public, and largely attended, in spite 
of the inclemency of the weather, the evening being 
marked by one of the heaviest snow-storms of the 
season. 

The Programme for the evening was published as 
follows: — 



FRANKLIN INSTITUTE. 

1824-1874. 



PROGRAMME OF EXERCISES 

AT THE 

MUSICAL FUND HALL. 

FRIDAY EVENING, FEBRUARY 6, 1874. 



MUSIC. 
Assembly called to Order by 

Mr. COLEMAN SELLERS, 

President of Franlclin Institute. 

MUSIC. 
Address by Hon. FREDERICK FRALEY, 

Treasurer of Franklin Institute. 

MUSIC. 
Address by ROBERT E. ROGERS, M.D., 

Professor of Chemistry in University of Pennsylvania^ and Vice-President 
of Franklin Institute. 

MUSIC. 
Address by HENRY MORTON, Ph.D., 

President of Stevens Institute of Technology, Hohoken, N. J , and late 
Secretary of Franklin Institute. 

MUSIC. 
Closing Address by Mr. COLEMAN SELLERS, 

President of Franklin Institute. 



. COMMEMORATIVE EXERCISES 



FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE FRANKLIN INSTITUTE OF 
THE STATE OF PENNSYLVANIA FOR THE PRO- 
MOTION OF THE MECHANIC ARTS. 

Held at Musical Fond Hall, February 6, 1874. 

At 7 J P. M. the Board of Managers welcomed the 
invited guests in the lower room of the hall, and at 
8 o'clock precisely, they conducted them to the seats 
provided for them on the stage. After prelude of 
music by the orchestra, the President, Mr. Coleman 
Sellers, called the meeting to order and said: — 

Ladies and Gentlemen : The object of this meet- 
ing is to commemorate the completion of fifty years 
of active usefulness of the Franklin Institute. Half 
a century ago some earnest mechanics met together 
to found an Institution for the promotion of the 
"mechanic arts. How well the work then started 
prospered you all know. It has been deemed fitting 
that the ceremonies of this evening should so far as 
is possible tell the story of the Society's history, 
and also indicate the progress made in the arts and 
sciences during the period of its existence. A society 
founded so long ago, must, of necessity have lost 
from its roll of living members many of its earliest 
friends. But few of those who signed their names 
to the first pages of that honorable list are now 
living. Of those who remain, some have long since 
2 



10 

withdrawn from active participation in tLe work of 
this Institution. Among these was one at whose 
office some of the preliminary meetings were held. 
I allude to Mr. George Washington Smith. He was 
invited to address you this evening, but his failing 
health prevented, and he now writes : — 

February 5tli, 1874. 

Gentlemen: A severe cold, which confines me to 
my chamber, w^ill deprive me of the great pleasure 
of attending the Fiftieth Anniversary of the founding 
of the now venerable Franklin Institute. I regret 
this the more, as I am now the only survivor of the 
original founders of the Society (some months before 
the meeting, which organized the Society, on the 
5th of February, 1824). Some members yet remain 
of those who joined the Institute at this latter date 
(at the meeting at the court-house in this city), and 
also still feel an unabated interest in the welfare of 
the body which they ushered into existence. 

I fervently trust that, now we have entered into 
years of discretion, we shall in the ensuing half cen- 
tury equal and even surpass the useful labors of the 
past, and that we will not permit any of our numer- 
ous progeny in the United States to carry otf the 
palm which has so long decorated our 'paternal 
brow — and that in the next generation the Centen- 
nial celebration may have nothing to regret in the 
comparison with the present. 

I remain, Gentlemen of the Committee of the 
Franklin Institute, with great regard, your friend, 

GEO. WASHINGTON SMITH. 

To Messrs. Sellers, Tatham, Fraley, Moore, and Orr. 



11 

Among those who early joined tlie Institute was 
a 3'oung man intimate with its early founders ; he 
alone of all, remains yet in active co-operation in the 
work of the Society. During the entire period of 
its existence since his connection with it, he has held 
prominent position in its board of management. 
During these years he has taken active part in'much 
that has tended to benefit his fellow citizens. He 
has been selected to relate the history of the Insti- 
tute, for he has helped to make that history, and 
his mature mind has made him a leader in its 
councils. To-da}^ he stands in our midst, one of our 
most valued citizens, faithful in all his trusts, and pro- 
minent in the councils of trade, as he was for years 
in the council of the State. Ladies and G-entlemen, 
it is with pride I announce him as historian, and 
introduce to you the Hon. Frederick Fraley, Trea- 
surer of the Franklin Institute. 



ADDRESS OF HO^^. FEEDERICK FRALEY. 

Mr. President: 

I thank you most cordially for your eloquent and 
flattering introduction to this meeting. If there 
were anything calculated to disturb my equanimity, 
it would be found in the compliments you have paid 
to me, for my long connection with, and services to 
the Franklin Institute. But I shall rely on the 
abundance of my materials, for presenting to this 
audience in the limited time which your arrange- 
ments allow, a brief sketch of the history of our 
Institution. I shall avail myself of the privilege 
you have so courteously granted me, when prepar- 



12 

ing my remarks for publication, so to amplify and 
collate them, that they may in some respects be 
worthy of this great occasion for our rejoicing. I 
esteem it a very great honor to have been selected 
as the historian of the Institute ; and, if I shall fail 
in ivords to do full justice to my subject, T shall not 
fail ill feeling that I ought to put into my utter- 
ances the obligations I personally owe to the In- 
stitute for the many beneiits I have derived from 
my long connection with it. 

Ladies and Gentlemen: 

Upwards of fifty years ago there were two young 
men residing in the city of Philadelphia, wholly 
unknown to each other, and in different walks of 
life, who conceived the same idea, for founding a 
new institution for diffusing a knowledge of science 
among mechanics and manufacturers. One of them 
was the late Samuel Y. Merrick, then not quite 
twenty-one years of age, who had been bred in a 
merchant's counting-house, and, up to the time of 
which we are speaking, considered himself devoted 
to commercial pursuits. But one of those casualties 
which overturn occasionally business establishments, 
had fallen upon a firm engaged in the manufacture 
of fire engines, to whom the uncle of Mr. Mer- 
rick (the late highly honored and esteemed John 
Vaughan) had loaned a considerable amount of 
money, and for which he had been obliged to take 
the property of the firm. Mr. Vaughan made several 
unsuccessful efforts to sell the property so acquired, 
and at length, in despair of getting anything out of 
it, suddenly said to his nephew, one morning : " Sam, 
how would you like to be a mechanic?" The youth- 



13 

ful clerk responded, "Uncle, I am willing to do any- 
thing you may recommend ;" and behold by a speedy 
transformation the clerk changed into a machinist ! 
Mr. Yaughan immediately formed a partnership be- 
tween his nephew and the late John Agnew ; and 
the firm continued for many years in existence, with 
very favorable results. But Mr. Merrick, in his new 
vocation, soon found that he was not a mechanic, 
and needed information and instruction to make 
him one. 

At that time there existed in Philadelphia an 
association of mechanics, which met at short inter- 
vals, for the consideration of mechanical and scien- 
tific subjects, and for mutual improvement hy con- 
versation and discussion. Mr. Merrick sought to 
become a member of this body, obtained a nomina- 
tion, but, to his mortification and chagrin, was hlack- 
hailed. He Avas in almost daily intercourse with the 
gentleman wdio proposed him for membership ; and 
the subject of his rejection was freely spoken of. 
This friend was the late William Kneass, of Phila- 
delphia, then a copper-plate engraver, an artist of 
much repute and merit in those days ; and after- 
wards the engraver and die-sinker in the Mint of 
the United States, which honorable and responsible 
ofi[ice he filled for many years. In one of these con- 
ferences Mr. Kneass said, jestingly : " Why don't 
you get up a new Institution to suit yourself?" Al- 
though this was said in jest, our young friend took 
it to heart, thought over it, and finally called on 
Mr. Kneass, and exacted from him a promise, that 
he would attend a meeting for the purpose of con- 
sidering such a project. 

Mr. Merrick accordingly called such a meeting, to 
be held at the hall of the American Philosophical 



14 

Society ; but no one attended. He renewed his call 
for another meeting, with the same result; and then, 
having called on Mr. Kneass to remonstrate with 
him for his desertion, that gentleman said: "If you 
are really in earnest about this matter, I will tell 
you who will help you ;" and he then narrated to 
him the history of an abortive attempt made some 
time before by Professor William H. Keating, of 
the University of Pennsylvania, to establish an in- 
stitution somewhat like that which had been con- 
ceived by Mr. Merrick. 

Professor William 11. Keating was the other of 
the two young men of whom I have just spoken. 
He had received a thorough liberal education, had 
graduated with honor at our University, and then 
went abroad to perfect his scientific training in the 
polytechnic and mining schools of France and Swit- 
zerland. 

He returned full of zeal for the diffusion of science 
applied to agriculture and the mechanic arts, and 
the Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania, enter- 
ing cordially into his views, established a Professor- 
ship of Chemistrj^, in its application to Agriculture 
and the Mechanic Arts, and elected Mr. Keating, 
then just arrived at manhood, to fill the honorable 
and novel position. 

On the subjects of his Chair, Professor Keating 
delivered several courses of lectures, and opened a 
laboratory for the instruction of students, in the 
basement of the old University building, at ]^inth 
Street, between Chestnut and Market Streets. The 
house had been built as a residence for the Presidents 
of the United States, by the State of Pennsylvania ; 
but, not being needed for that purpose, in conse- 
quence of the removal of the seat of government of 



15 

the United States to Washington City, it was sold 
to the University by the State. It was taken down 
in 1829 to give place to the two College Halls which 
lately stood on the same site ; and now the venerable 
institution, in which this start in applied science 
was first made in our country, has risen in greater 
glory and usefulness, in West Philadelphia. 

While worki^ig earnestly in the sphere to which 
he had been called, Mr. Keating sought to interest 
his friends and others in an enlarged scheme for 
scientific instruction; and he also had called meet- 
ings which proved abortive. He supposed that it 
was practicable to get the fund given by the Will of 
Christopher Ludwig (late Baker-Greneral to Gene- 
ral Washington), for the support of a Charity School, 
transferred to an institution of higher aims in in- 
struction. And especially did he hope for this, be- 
cause, by the public school system then recently 
established in Philadelphia, the establishment and 
support of purely charitable schools had been super- 
seded. But in this praiseworthy attempt he failed, 
and he and Mr. Merrick were both stranded in their 
hopes. And now, by the kind intervention of Mr. 
Kneass, these two ardent men were brought to- 
gether. Mr. Kneass gave Mr. Merrick a history of 
Mr, Keating's efibrts, and advised him to call and 
see him. This Mr. Merrick speedily did, and, intro- 
ducing himself, the kindred spirits went earnestly to 
work in concert. They compared notes ; looked into 
the history and objects of the Andersonian Institution 
at Glasgow ; and finally agreed to make another 
efibrt to get a meeting, under the shadow of w^hose 
authority they might make an appeal to the public. 

Such a meeting w^as accordingly convened, and 



16 

tradition, and some memoranda, indicate that the 
following gentlemen attended: Samuel Y. Merrick, 
Thomas Fletcher, Matthias W. Baldwin, David 
H. Mason, and Oran Colton. 

A committee was appointed, consisting of some 
of those present, and of others selected outside, who 
were supposed to be willing to unite ; and James 
Ronaldson, Samuel R. Wood, Samuel Y. Merrick, 
M. T. Wickham, W. H. Keating, Thomas Fletcher, 
and James Rush were appointed to draught a phm 
of organization, constitution, etc. etc. 

The preparation of these details was confided to 
Mr. Merrick, and he states that, when he presented 
them to Mr. Wood, he said : '' Thee need not read 
them ; I am perfectly willing to adopt them ; but 
thee cannot succeed in establishing thy Institute." 
Mr. Wood then described to him certain professional 
jealousies which he said were prevailing in the city; 
and if either side joined Mr. Merrick in carrying 
out his plan, it would be sure to be attacked by the 
other, and thus inevitably become partisan in its 
character. The small meeting was again convened, 
the plan approved, and Messrs. Merrick and Keat- 
ing, nothing daunted, prepared to carry it into exe- 
cution. 

They called to their aid Dr. Robert E. Griflath, 
and George Washington Smith, Esq., who happily 
still survives to share in the glory of this anniver- 
sary. And these four young men, taking the Phila- 
delphia Directory in their hands, selected from it 
the names of some 1200 to 1600 citizens, whom they 
thought might possibly take an interest in such a 
work, and invited them, by circular letters, to attend 
a meeting to be held at the county court-house, at 



17 

Sixth and Chestnut Streets, on the evening of the 
5th of February, 1824, when and where the long 
cherished project was to be submitted for final ap- 
proval. 

I must here pause for a moment to make a brief 
comment on this history of the labors of the real 
founders of the Institute. 

In the 3'ear 1866, Mr. Merrick placed in my hands 
a letter* in which he very amply records his own 
labors in the good work, and the hearty co-operation 
he received from Professor Keating. As the time 
has now come in which I am fullj^ justified in mak- 
ing that letter public, I shall place a copy of it at 
the disposal of the Institute for publication, as part 
of the proceedings of the evening. 

Professor Keating, so far as I know, never pre- 
pared any account of his own labors in the great 
work, and he has left it to tradition, and the memory 
of loving friends, to give him his proper share of 
honor. 

My own acquaintance with both of these noble- 
hearted and generous men dates from about the 
year 1823, when I attended the lectures of Professor 
Keating in the University, and when I was asso- 
ciated with Mr. Merrick as a member of the Phila- 
delphia Hose Company, the first hose company that 
was established in the city, and whose honorable 
record for many years was the pride and glory of its 
members. 

During the whole of the remainder of their lives, 
I was the intimate friend of both, and it is a gratifi- 
cation to me of the purest and most exalted character, 
that I am permitted to stand here, upon this occa- 

* See letter at close of this article, p. 39. 



18 

sioD, aucl bear my hearty testimony to their worth 
and virtues. 

We have now reached the time when the public 
meeting was held. The citizens responded most cor- 
dially to the call, and the court-house was tilled to 
overflowing. 

Mr. James Ronaldson (a Scotchman by birth, but 
an American in every fibre, who was himself engaged 
in mechanical pursuits, originally a baker, but then 
a type founder, doing in that line the most exten- 
sive business in the United States) was selected to 
preside. 

Peter A. Beowne, Esq., then an eloquent and dis- 
tinguished member of the Philadelphia bar, made 
an earnest and effective speech, in which he sketched 
the plan and purposes of the new Institution, and 
his speech was warmly applauded. He was followed 
by others in earnest and eloquent remarks ; a letter 
was read from [N'icholas Biddle, Esq., then in the 
acme of his reputation, giving his approval and ten- 
dering membership and support. 

The Constitution was submitted, considered, 
amended, and then unanimously adopted. 

Lists were then circulated, on which those present 
enrolled themselves for membership. 

A committee was appointed to nominate candidates 
for officers and managers, and to take the needed 
order for holding an election on the 16th of the same 
month. At this meeting I enrolled myself as a 
member, although not quite of age, and have con- 
tinued that membership to this day, and may with 
truth say to the Institute, that " nought but death 
shall part thee and me!" 



19 

By the time the election was lielcl, the roll con- 
tained between 400 and 500 members. 

Mr. Ronaldson was elected President, and held the 
office until the year 1842. 

The Board of Managers then chosen, of whom, of 
course, Merrick and Keating were members, went 
energetically to work, and soon had the Institute 
thoroughly organized. 

Standing Committees on Instruction ; on Inven- 
tions ; on Premiums and Exhibitions ; on the Library ; 
and on Models and Minerals, were appointed, and 
took hold of their duties wnth zeal and earnestness. 

Professorships of Chemistry ; of Natural Pliilo- 
sophy and Mechanics ; and of Architecture, were 
forthwith established, and respectively filled by the 
election of Professor Keating to the first. Professor 
Robert M. Patterson to the second, and William 
Strickland, Esq., to the third. 

And here I may be permitted to pause and say a 
word about the University of Pennsylvania, and its 
ancient and continued interest in and aid to the 
Institute. Profs. Keating and Patterson both held 
chairs in that Institution, when they were called into 
our service, and from that day to the present time 
our relations to the University have been cordial 
and complete, for of her gifted Professors we have 
had, in addition to those already named, Alex. Dallas 
Bache, John F. Frazer, Henry Eeed, and Roswell 
Park, and from her Medical Department, Professors 
Hare, James Rogers, and Robert E. Rogers. 

The first course of lectures was delivered in the 
old Academy building, on Fourth, near Arch Street, 
belonging to the University of Pennsylvania ; the use 
of the building being granted to us by the trustees. 



20 

In addition to the lectures on the subjects above 
named, there were a number of volunteer lectures, 
delivered by members of the Institute, on various 
subjects connected with science and the arts. 

The foundations thus laid for instruction were 
rapidly enlarged, and to those like myself, who have 
been of them and in them for half a century, their 
proportions and usefulness have been really wonder- 
ful. 

Soon a school, in which should be taught archi- 
tectural and mechanical drawing, was established, 
and it was rapidly filled with pupils. Among the 
earliest of these was my friend, who is now sitting 
on the platform, almost as venerable-looking as my- 
self, Thomas U. Walter, Esq., then a young brick- 
layer, but, thanks to that school, afterwards the ac- 
complished and successful architect of the Grirard 
College, then Professor of Architecture in the Insti- 
tute, and finally commending himself and his works 
to posterity as the architect of the Capitol at Wash- 
ington. 

But, not content with this special school, the 
Managers determined to establish another, in whicli 
all the useful branches of English Literature and 
mathematics, and the ancient and modern lan- 
guages should be taught : in short, a high school. 
This was placed under the charge of Walter E.. 
Johnson, Esq., with able assistants, and was soon 
filled with pupils. The Drawing School has been 
very successfully continued down to the present day, 
and is now more flourishing than ever before, but 
the High School was discontinued after a few years' 
time upon the resignation of Mr. Johnson. By this 
time the public schools of the city had been much 



21 

improved by the introduction of new methods of in- 
struction, and the establishment of the Central High 
School of Philadelphia supplied all the needs that our 
High School was intended to provide for. The Depart- 
ment of Instruction, with various changes and en- 
largement of the features, has continued in successful 
operation down to the present time. Its Professors 
of Chemistry have been W. H. Keating, Franklin 
Bache, John K. Mitchell, and John P. Prazer, men 
who were remarkable for the extent of their knowl- 
edge, and whose names are identified with the sci- 
entific reputation of our city. With the same hon- 
orable and enduring notice we place here the names 
of our Professors of Natural Philosophy and Me- 
chanics, Robert M. Patterson, Thomas P. Jones, 
Walter P. Johnson, and John C. Cresson. My space 
will not permit me to name all their successors, who, 
taking up their mantles, have won, and are continu- 
ing to win, laurels in the same fields. E'or can I be- 
gin to make a list of those wdio have contributed by 
valuable lectures to fill up more effectually the meas- 
ure of useful instruction that we have diffused. But 
I see one of them now near me, the venerable Dr. 
Gouverneur Emerson, who fully forty years ago de- 
livered a course on meteorology — the first of that 
character, probably, in this country, and who since 
then has kept up his interest and knowledge of that 
important part of atmospheric science, and has lived 
to witness, in the establishment of the Signal Service 
Bureau of the United States, the recognition and 
utility of the infant science he was then aiding in 
ushering into life. 

The Committee on Inventions sooii became a cen- 
tre from which radiated the most useful and interest- 



99 



ing results. The late Isaiah Lukens, a distinguished 
mechanician, was for many years its chairman, and, 
with the Professors in the Institute, and such asso- 
ciates as Alexander Dallas Bache, Benjamin Reeves, 
Samuel Y. Merrick, Rufus Tyler, Matthias W. Bald- 
win, John Agnew, G-eorge Washington Smith, John 
Wiegand, and others, gave wise counsel to inventors, 
put them in the way of knowing what had previ- 
ously been accomplished, saved them from the loss of 
money and of reputation, by showing them when 
their inventions were not new ; and when any matter 
of real novelty or value was presented, endorsing it 
most heartily with their approval, and giving that 
potential aid which would almost certainly secure 
public recognition and reward. 

This committee continued its labors as originally 
constituted for many years, and upon its suggestions 
committees were raised for investigating the various 
forms of water-wheels, for giving economical value 
to water-power. 

On this subject, experiments of great number, and 
on almost every form of Avater motor then known, 
were made, and the results tabulated and commented 
on in such an exhaustive manner that the report 
continues to this day to be a most valuable text- 
book on water-power. 

Following this, and in the same lead of practical 
usefulness, a committee was raised to investigate the 
causes of explosion on steam-boilers, and in this in- 
vestigation, the Institute succeeded in getting the 
co-operation of the government of the United States, 
an appropriation for defraying the cost of the expe- 
riments being made by Congress. But no part of 
the money so appropriated was paid as compensation 



23 

to the experimenters. These were all volunteers, 
devoting many months of valuable time to the inves- 
tigation, and ascertaining most valuable facts, which 
have since been utilized for the benefit and safety of 
the public. 

Connected with these experiments on explosions 
caused by steam, came almost naturally an investi- 
gation of the strength of materials. For this pur- 
pose, the committee devised testing apparatus of 
various forms, and applied them in the most exten- 
sive and crucial way to the metals, and materials of 
all kinds used in machines, steam-boilers, buildings, 
and other branches of the useful arts. The reports 
on explosions, and on the strength of materials, were 
published also, and are of equal reputation and use 
as those on w^ater-power. 

The Committee on Inventions was subsequently 
abolished, and in its place was established the 
" Committee on Science and Arts." This committee 
was intended to cover not only the ground originally 
occupied by the Committee on Inventions, but to 
embrace a wider field, and to interest in its operation 
a larger number of members. Every one, therefore, 
who felt an interest in developing the domains of 
invention or science, was invited to enroll himself as 
a member, and thereby to pledge himself to devote 
his time and knowledge to the service of the com- 
mittee, and through it to the public. This volun- 
tary association still exists ; and its long course of 
labors and usefulness is attested by its memoirs, and 
by the vast number of reports made on inventions 
and other matters submitted to its scrutiny. And 
this seems a fitting place to introduce the name of 
one of the most illustrious of our members, Alexan- 



24 

der Dallas Bache. He was the great-grandsou of the 
world-renowned Dr. Benjamin Franklin ; and in 
many traits of character resembled his great ances- 
tor. After receiving a sufficient preliminary educa- 
tion to fit him for it, he was appointed a Cadet in 
the Military Academy of the United States at West 
Point, and graduated there, after his four years' 
course, with distinguished honor. He was duly 
appointed a second-lieutenant in the artillerj^ corps, 
and placed in charge of the construction of some of 
the forts in the !N'ew England States. A vacancy 
having occurred in the Professorship of Chemistry 
and iTatural Philosophy in the University of Penn- 
sylvania, he was elected to the chair, and removed 
to Philadelphia. He soon joined the Institute, 
and became one of its most prominent and useful 
members. Hs served on the Committees of Instruc- 
tion, Inventions, Publications, and Exhibitions. His 
knowledge was great, and his aptitude for applying 
it wonderful. 

He became, as it were, a centre around which 
every department of the Institute could revolve^ 
and, like that other great centre, the sun, he had the 
faculty of controlling, and keeping in harmony and 
efficient working order, all who came within his in- 
fluence. 

To him, the investigations on water-power, ex- 
plosions of steam, and strength of materials, owe 
much of their value. He supervised the reduction 
of the results of experiments, tabulated them, and 
mainly prepared the reports. 

To his eflibrts the organization of the Committee 
on Science was mainly due. He presided over it for 
many years, and by his skill and wisdom in selecting 



its sub-committees, rendered it useful and powerful. 
After a long service with us, and with the University, 
and after having laid the foundations for instruction 
in the Girard College for Orphans, and for the Cen- 
tral High School, he left us to accept the appoint- 
ment of Superintendent of the Coast Survey of the 
United States. In this new Held of labor and useful- 
ness he Avas the same patient, devoted, and successful 
worker, and brought that great national work up 
to a state of accuracy and comprehensiveness that 
has challenged the admiration of the world. Until 
death, he was the warm friend and earnest advo- 
cate of the Institute. He was my early schoolmate ; 
the affectionate friend and associate of my manhood ; 
and his virtues and worth are among the most pre- 
cious of my memories. 

One of the methods adopted by the Institute for 
the promotion of the mechanic arts was to reward 
inventors, manufacturers, and mechanics, by the dis- 
tribution of medals and premiums. To this end, the 
Committee on Premiums and Exhibitions was ap- 
pointed. 

It very soon announced that an Exhibition of 
American Manufactures would be held in the city 
of Philadelphia, and published a long list of pre- 
miums that would then be awarded. A very exten- 
sive circulation of this intention was given by letters 
addressed to those whose interests would be promoted 
by the Exhibition, and also by advertisements to 
direct public attention to the undertaking. It was 
held in the Carpenters' Hall, in Philadelphia, in the 
autumn of 1824, and was crowned with complete 
success. It attracted large crowds of people, who 
hitherto had had no conception of the extent and 



26 

variety of our home productions, and reacted in 
many curious and unexpected ways to bring pro- 
ducers and consumers together, and to diffuse a 
knowledge of our domestic skill and resources. These 
Exhibitions were continued at short intervals for 
many years, and grew in public favor and usefulness; 
but were suspended a few years ago in consequence 
of an inability to get a hall of sufficient size for a 
proper display. It would be impossible to estimate 
the value of these Exhibitions, for it is only those 
who, from year to 3'ear, watched the progress of manu- 
factures in the United States, as their products were 
brought together in friendly competition on our 
tables, that can realize the astonishing developments 
of our industry which have marked the half century 
now closed. The Institute, having secured, for an Ex- 
hibition to be held in the autumn of the present year, 
by the liberality of the Pennsylvania Railroad Com- 
pany, a building of ample size, and in a most favor- 
able location, will resume this well-tried part of its 
system of o})erations, and in the coming display, lay 
the groundwork, and stimulate preparation for the 
great Centennial International Exhibition, which in 
1876 is to commemorate the hundredth anniversary 
of our existence as a nation. 

Without a library, the Institute would have been 
but half armed ; and soon, under the auspices of the 
committee charged with attention to that feature of 
the Institution, books began to take their places on 
our shelves, to accumulate, to be used, and gradually 
to assume the numbers and variety which now cha- 
racterize our large and valuable collection. 

In natural connection with the library comes the 
Journal. At the outset, the pecuniary means of 



27 

the Institute were too limited to permit it to venture 
alone on such a publication. But an arrangement 
was made with Thomas P. Jones, Esq., then Pro- 
fessor of Xatural Philosophy and Mechanics, to edit 
and publish a periodical devoted to science and the 
arts, under the title of the Franklin Journal. In 
this form, and with limited aid from our treasury, 
the publication was continued until 1828, when the 
Institute assumed the responsibility of continuing 
it, under the title of The Journal of the Franklin 
Institute ; and so it has continued to this time. 

Of the great value of the Journal^ in diffusing 
information of varied character, on subjects of 
science and the arts, you, who have had the best 
opportunities for judging, can make a proper esti- 
mate. I will only say that, to have stood the tests 
of competition, active and extensive as they have 
been, furnishes pretty strong pr«)of that it has been 
well and ably managed ; and although its balance 
sheets do not show an absolute profit in money, 
the results of its exchanges are on your bookshelves, 
and are of far more worth than mere money. 

And now let us stop for a moment to pay a passing 
tribute to the memory and worth of an old officer of 
the Institute, to whom the Journal was as the apple 
of his eye. 

You all recollect William Hamilton, for nearly 
half a century our loved and trusted Actuary. He 
went in and out before us for this long period, the 
very embodiment of our Franklin Institute. I be- 
came a member of the Board of Managers just after 
his election in the year 1828. 

With the exception of a few years I have been 
Treasurer or Secretary during his whole term, and 



28 

these offices brought me into almost daily intercourse 
with Mr. Hamilton. And I may truly say that I 
have often marvelled at the devotion which charac- 
terized him in our service. The interests of the 
Institute seemed to be the blood that circulated in 
his arteries and the marrow of his bones. 

Earely affected by illness, he was always at his 
post ; he knew every detail of our working move- 
ments ; he was ready to produce book, report, ac- 
count, or model, at any call ; he seemed to know 
every member ; he maintained his good temper and 
courtesy when often sorely tried ; and, by his kind- 
heartedness and good management, kept many from 
straying from our fold. He was scrupulously honest 
and trustworthy ; and all his thoughts and actions 
were regulated and controlled by a simple religious 
and conscientious spirit. No one who knew him 
thoroughly could fail to love and honor him. 

He seemed, at his fourscore years, to have scarcely 
lost the vigor and elasticity of his manhood ; and, 
within a week of his death, he was discharging 
every duty of his office as carefully and with as 
much love and interest as ever. He was a loving 
and faithful servant; and deserves our gratitude 
and enduring remembrance. 

The editors of the Journal have been Thomas P. 
Jones, A. D. Bache, Charles B. Trego, John F. 
Frazer, Henry Morton, and William H. Wahl ; and 
as this sketch is going through the press. Professor 
George F. Barker of the University has assumed 
that duty. 

Among the early committees we find that on 
Models and Minerals, and, thanks to its labors, we 
have quite a respectable collection of both ; and had 



29 

we space for more, the contributions ofwilluig in- 
ventors and friends would no doubt be large. In 
our collection are to be found some curious and 
interesting specimens of ingenuity. One of these is 
the model of a machine for producing perpetual 
motion. 

This is the work of Isaiah Lukens, before men- 
tioned as Chairman of the Committee on Inventions. 
He was also one of the early Vice-Presidents. Some 
of the older of my audience will recollect the excite- 
ment caused by the announcement that a Mr. Red- 
heffer had discovered the perpetual motion. Mr. 
Lukens visited the place of the exhibition of Red- 
heffer's machine, and, after a brief examination, dis- 
covered the trick. Returning to his workshop he 
immediately constructed a machine in imitation of 
Redheffer's, but with the motor concealed in a 
different way. He then sent for Redheffer, informed 
him that he had discovered his trick and fraud, told 
him that the machine before him was also a fraud, 
and challenged him to point it out, which Redheffer 
ineffectually tried to do, and gave up in despair. 

But the labors and services of the Institute were 
not bounded by what we have been describing. The 
lectures of Mr. James P. Espy, and his essays on 
meteorology, and the theories adverse thereto of 
Redfield and others, caused a large share of public 
attention to be directed to that subject. Dr. Emer- 
son had awakened our members many years before 
to its importance ; and the Legislature of Pennsyl- 
vania made a liberal appropriation for the purchase 
of instruments, and for the collection of facts by 
observers in all parts of the State. 

The purchase of instruments, the organization of 



30 

the corps of observers, and the tabulation and publi- 
cation of the results, and the Avhole expenditure of 
the appropriation, were placed in charge of the Insti- 
tute. The fund was carefully managed, and for a 
number of years monthly tables of the observations 
were published in the Journal. Subsequently, the 
Institute was requested by the State Legislature to 
examine and report upon our system of weights 
and measures. A special committee was called, 
which thoroughly went through the work, and, 
upon its report, the law was enacted which is now 
in force for the commonwealth. 

The general interest created by the existence and 
working of the Institute caused more attention to 
be paid to technology and to science generally ; 
and gave rise to a movement for the establishment 
of a school of arts in the year 1837. The Institute 
headed this movement, and applied to the councils 
of the city for a grant of a large plot of ground in 
West Philadelphia as a site for the buildings of the 
proposed school. 

This was promptly and cheerfully granted, and 
the Legislature was appealed to by memorials from 
all parts of the State, to endow the school by a 
liberal appropriation. The House of Representatives 
passed the bill for this purpose, but immediately 
reconsidered its action, the members seeming to be 
alarmed at their own courage in venturing so far 
out of the old paths. 

It was well understood, then, that if the bill had 
reached the Senate it would have been promptly 
passed ; and Governor Ritner had promised to give 
it his approval. The seed then planted was watched 
with care, and efforts were often made to resuscitate 



31 

the enterprise. It was finally taken up by the trus- 
tees of the University, among whom are to be found 
now a number of the active members of the Insti- 
tute; and, by the cordial concurrence and aid of Dr. 
Charles J. Stille, the Provost, the Department of 
Science was established in the University on a most 
comprehensive basis, and is now in successful opera- 
tion. Thus it has been that the philanthropic efforts 
of Merrick and Keating to start our Institute were 
crowned with such complete success. 

As I have before stated, the first course of lectures 
was delivered in the old Academy Building on 
Fourth Street. The Institute very soon rented the 
lower story of the Old Carpenter's Hall, in the rear 
of Chestnut Street, east of Fourth Street, a place 
rendered memorable and almost sacred by the 
sessions of the first Continental Congress. 

By this time we felt so sure of our hold on the 
public, that we determined to build a hall, and, to 
carry out this intention, a purchase was made of the 
lot on Seventh Street between Market and Chestnut 
Streets. 

The corner-stone was laid with appropriate Masonic 
and other ceremonies, on the eighth day of June, 
1825, at noon, and the edifice was erected by con- 
tract, from plans and estimates furnished by John 
Haviland, Esq., the architect. We were obliged to 
have an eye to revenue from the building, and to aid 
us in that, then important matter, an agreeiijent was 
made with the United States, that we would arrange 
and finish the second story so that it might be occu- 
pied as a court-room, and offices for the Circuit and 
District Courts. When the building was completed, 
a lease was accordingly made for a term of years at 



32 

$1500 per annum. But after a short occupancy, this 
lease was cancelled, as it was found to be incon- 
venient for members of the bar to be so far from the 
county court-house at Sixth and Chestnut Streets. 
The United States then agreed to give up the 
premises, and to pay $900 per annum for the re- 
mainder of the term, and the city rented them the 
second story of Independence Hall. 

The building was completed, and we entered into 
the occupancy of all except the*second story in 1826, 
and then began to feel that we had got out of our 
" long clothes." 

On the cancellation of the lease to the United 
States, we obtained possession of the whole build- 
ing ; and therein, all the manifold labors of the In- 
stitute have been conceived and carried into execu- 
tion. 

This dear old hall is associated with so many 
pleasant and useful memories, that whenever re- 
moval to a new building has been agitated, it has 
given rise to strong emotions. 

But it has so happened that the intention of re- 
moval hiis several times been seriously considered. 
It very nearly culminated in the year 1836, when 
the Masonic Hall property on Chestnut Street west 
of Seventh Street was purchased by the Institute for 
the sum of $110,500. 

Plans for a new and enlarged hall were prepared 
by William Strickland, Esq., architect, aided by a 
committee of the Institute. A plan for a building 
loan was adopted, and a part of it subscribed for, 
which enabled the Institute to pay the first instal- 
ment of the purchase- money. But the great finan- 
cial crash of May, 1837, struck our project down. 



33 

and after vainly struggling for several years to carry 
it out, we had at last to surrender it, and at a fear- 
ful loss of many thousands of dollars. At different 
times since, projects of removal have been started, 
but grown wise by the experience of 1837, we have 
not been again tempted into any uncertain contracts. 
The old hall has been modified and improved in 
its interior; and, although small and inconvenient 
in some respects for our present wants, will not 
hastily be abandoned,. 

Mr. James Ronaldson served as President until 
January, 1842, when he resigned; but he maintained 
his interest in the Institution until he died, and 
gave it by his will a legacy of five hundred dollars. 

He was succeeded by Samuel V. Merrick, the ac- 
knowledged Founder of the Institute, and the man 
above all others who impressed on it at the beginning, 
nearly all of its practical features, as Keating did 
those for its science. 

Mr. Merrick held the office of President until 
January, 1855, when he resigned. 

But his resignation of office did not sever him 
from active duty. As in the beginning, so through- 
out his whole life, every faculty he enjoyed, every 
hour that was needful for its service, time, talents, 
and money, were always ready for the Institute. 
And if asked to point out his monument, standing 
in our hall, we should reply " Circianspice.'" 

Mr. Merrick was succeeded in the Presidency by 
John C. Cresson. My relations to Mr. Cresson make 
it difficult for me to speak of his merits and services. 
He was elected a member in 1834. He had early in 
life chosen agriculture for a profession, and, in pre- 
paring for it, after receiving a good classical educa- 



84 

tion, he paid considerable attention to the study of 
chemistry, natural philosophy, and mechanics. He 
attended the lectures of Professor Keating in the 
University in 1823. Yery soon after his election as 
a member, he relinquished his agricultural pursuits, 
and engaged in commercial business in the city. He 
became an active and useful member of our import- 
ant committees. 

Shortly after the Philadelphia gas-works were 
built, under the charge of Mr. Merrick, as engineer; 
Mr. Cresson was appointed superintendent of the 
works, and subsequently engineer. He gave such 
evidence of his thorough knowledge of natural phi- 
losophy and mechanics that he was elected Professor 
in 1837, and held that ofHce for several years. 

On the resignation of Professor Bache as Chair- 
man of the Committee on Science and the Arts, 
Professor Cresson was elected its chairman, and still 
holds that place. As the worthy coadjutor, friend, 
and associate of Merrick, Keating, Bache, and the 
other active members of the Institute, he was con- 
sidered the fittest man to succeed Mr. Merrick. His 
able administration was universally recognized, and 
he occupies a high and honorable place in our records 
and history. 

He declined a re-election in 1864, and William 
Sellers, Esq., was chosen his successor. 

Under the administration of this estimable and 
distinguished mechanical engineer a new impulse 
was given to the career of the Institute. The plan 
of organization was modified, and a large sum was 
raised by Mr. Sellers and his friends to reduce the 
debt, to repair and alter the hall, and to bring the 
Institution into more efi'ectual contact with manu- 



35 

facturers and mechanics. Professor Henry Morton, 
who was winning an enviable reputation as a physi- 
cist and lecturer, was chosen Secretary ; and with a 
liberal salary and enlarged powers was made its chief 
executive officer. He was also entrusted with the 
editorship of the Journal^ and, until his election as 
President of the "Stevens Institute," devoted his 
rare abilities to our service. It is with great pleasure 
that I see him here on this occasion, to unite with us 
in proclaiming the advantages of such institutions. 

One of the principal changes made by the advice 
of Mr. Sellers and his friends was to have the whole 
of our property represented by stock, the shares of 
which could be purchased at a moderate price, and 
giving the privileges of membership transferable for 
the benefit of heirs or purchasers. The introduction 
of these new elements of strength was hailed with 
much pleasure by those who had held offices for so 
many years. Death had diminished the number of 
the old associates, and age and physical infirmity 
were depriving them of their ancient ardor and zeah 
But they were still ready, with their old attach- 
ment, to aid with their counsel and presence these 
new and active workers ; and the Institute was 
strengthened and benefited by the combination of 
such elements. 

Mr. Sellers declined a re-election in 1868, and was 
succeeded by John Yaughan Merrick, Esq., the 
eldest son of the distinguished Founder. He in- 
herited all the interest so long held by his father, 
and energetically carried out the new and enlarged 
policy. 

He declined a re-election in January, 1870, and 
was succeeded by Coleman Sellers, Esq., who now 



36 

holds the office, and is ably and faithfully discharg- 
ing its duties. 

He is also by profession a mechanical engineer, 
and has won, by his ingenuity and skill, an honor- 
able name in his profession. 

In making up this record of our Presidents, it is a 
remarkable fact that they have all been characterized 
by the possession of rare gifts of administration and 
of public confidence. 

John Scott, a chemist of Edinburgh, gave by his 
will to the corporation of the city of Philadelphia 
a legacy for the establishment of a premium, to be 
given by a medal and money to the inventors of 
anything new or useful. In the year 1834, the city 
councils placed the awarding of the Scott's Legacy 
Medal and Premium in the hands of the Institute, 
and it has so faithfully and carefully discharged that 
duty that its stewardship still continues. 

In the year 1848, the late Elliott Cresson, Esq., 
placed in the charge of trustees a sufficient sum of 
money to provide a gold medal, which was to be 
awarded by the Institute to the inventor of any 
new or useful discovery. As this premium is to be 
given only for matters of real novelty and merit, it 
is, of course, rarely issued. The first recipient of it 
was Gen. Benjamin C. Tilghman, Esq., of Philadel- 
phia, the discoverer of the application of the sand 
blast, for a variety of useful and ornamental pur- 
poses. 

And in 1859, Uriah A. Boyden, of Boston, Mass., 
placed in charge of the Institute the sum of one 
thousand dollars, to be awarded to " any resident 
of [N^orth America who shall determine by experi- 
ment whether all rays of light, and other physical 



37 

rays, are or are not transmitted with the same 
velocity." The claim to be made in the form of an 
essay, announcing the result and its manner of 
ascertainment, to be presented before the first day of 
January, 1873. 

The awarding of this premium was placed in the 
hands of a committee. 

Several essays were received, but no one of them 
was considered of sufiicient merit to entitle it to the 
prize. 

Mr. Boyden has generously allowed the premium 
to remain with the Institute, in the hope that it may 
be earned by some worthy mathematician. 

Having now brought this historical sketch down 
to the present time, we may be permitted to linger 
a little while over our personal experiences, and to 
bear our testimony to the many advantages we have 
enjoyed from our connection with the Institute. 
Speaking for myself, I may say, most truly, that it 
has been to me my school of schools. As an original 
member, and then a very young man, I was imme- 
diately associated with the founders, and with those 
older and accomplished men who had joined with 
them. Together we walked for over forty years, 
not in the wilderness but by pleasant paths, study- 
ing by the way all that was new and useful in 
science and the arts, and accumulating priceless 
treasures of knowledge. 

My friend, Professor Eobert E. Rogers, is about 
to follow me with the wonderful record of the pro- 
gress of science in the last half century. Modern 
physical science has been made within that time, 
and, as each brilliant discovery was announced in 
chemistry, physics, or mechanics, it was brought 
into our field in the hall of the Institute, and the 



38 

band of brothers there assembled lovingly together 
made themselves, in their respective walks, masters 
of the new discoveries ; and in not a few instances 
enlarged and perfected their applications. I am 
thankful that for the half century I have been an 
active member of the Institute, I owe to its teach- 
ings and their influence on my mind very much of 
the knowledge and information that have given any 
useful influence to my life ; and my earnest praj^er 
for the young members of it is, that they shall de- 
rive as much advantage from its teachings. as I have 
realized. I see around me here to-night some of the 
original members, and others who were speedily 
enrolled. 

As I entered this hall, I was greeted by one of 
the original members, Mr. George S. Lang, with 
vivid reminders of our flrst meeting at the county 
court-house in February 1824. Here also I see on 
this platform the venerable fornis of my friends, 
Henry C. Carey, David S. Brown, Gouverneur Emer- 
son, Thomas U. Walter, and Hector Orr, earl}^ and 
earnest laborers in the fields I have been describing. 

The numbers of the Old Guard are gradually 
diminishing, but the golden cord that has bound us 
too;ether so lono- still encircles the survivors. Of the 
illustrious dead, how shall I venture to make up the 
record? Merrick, Keating, Patterson, Strickland, 
Bache, Peale, Frazer, Lukens, Baldwin, Tyler, were 
chiefs on the roll of the departed. 

George Washington Smith, Carey, Emerson, Cres- 
son, Wiegand, Booth, Roberts, Trego, still survive, 
Avith their love for the Institute undiminished by age. 
Did space permit, I might swell to a large extent 
,this list of devoted men ; but I content myself with 
the types I have selected, and say in all sincerity, of 



39 

those not named, that the working force of the In- 
stitute was imbued with the spirit of such chiefs. 

I now close my attempt to place before you a his- 
tory of the Institute. 

It has honorably lived for half a century; it is 
again endowed with the invigoration of youth and 
earnestness ; it has all the experience of the past in 
its treasure house ; it has all the bright promise of 
the future for its encouragement. 

As we now rejoice over what we have accom- 
plished, so may those who come after us celebrate 
with even more fervor its Centennial. And, when 
the hundred years are ended, may new hands keep 
our banner up, weaving, in glorious pride, over new 
victories w^on for the benefit and improvement> of 
mankind, and cheer the old Institute onward, with 
the well-earned cry of Esto Peiyetua ! 



LETTER OF MR. MERRICK TO MR. FRALEY.. 

Philad., 11 Sept. 1866. 
Dear Fraley — 

Reflecting upon our little talk on old times this morning, I have 
concluded that justice to myself and other friends connected Avith 
the early history of the Franklin Institute, calls for such informa- 
tion as you seem to need in relation to its origin. In this I may 
subject myself to a charge of egotism ; but I think you know me 
well enough to acquit me of any intentional wrong to any one. 

I look back on the incipiency of that Institution, feeling that 
if I had done nothing else in my life, I should have something to 
be proud of in the part I took in its founding. 

You know^ that I was reared in a counting-house, and destined 
to a mercantile life. 

Circumstances which need not be detailed changed its objects ; 
and at an age before maturity I found myself an owner of a 
workshop, without a mechanical education and with scarcely a 
mechanical idea. 



40 

On contemplating the position thus assumed I was made aware 
of two facts : that without knowledge I could not succeed, while 
it was too late again to go to school ; and, secondly, that as a me- 
chanic I was socially degraded, for in those days, as people des- 
pised mere mechanics, my own position shared that of my class. 

There existed at that time a society of mechanics who statedh' 
met for discussion and mutual improvement, into which I desired 
a<lmission for the same object. Being proposed, I was black- 
balled under the influence of personal ill-will entertained by a 
prominent member. 

Well acquainted with Mr. Wm. H. Kneass, engraver, who 
occupied a shop in Fourth St., in my daily work I frequently 
called for friendly chat. Mr. K. had proposed me to the Asso- 
ciation, and was much annoyed at the issue of the vote. 

Discussing the matter with him one day with no very pleasant 
feelings, he jestingh^ asked me why I did not start a new society 
having a wider field of usefulness. 

I was very young and had but a limited acquaintance ; yet 
after a night's reflection I determined to act on his suggestion, 
though I knew he was not serious. 

With this view I called a meeting at the Philosophical Hall- of 
some fifteen or twenty gentlemen who I supposed would take an 
interest in so useful a movement. The night of meeting came, 
and no one responded to the call. 

After talking the matter over the next day with several who 
professed an interest in the project, I called a second meeting, 
with a similar result. 

A further conference with Mr. Kneass was the consequence of 
the second lailure ; to whom I complained that he had not kept 
his appointment. He then said seriously that he thought I was 
wasting my time. That it was impossible to unite the mechanics 
of Phihidelphia in such an enterprise, and I had better abandon 
the idea. I replied that I had a better opinion of the public 
spirit of Philadelphia, and that I Avas determined to succeed. 

He replied that as I was bent on going forward, he would tell 
me where I was likely to get help. He then gave me an account 
of the above abortive movement in the same direction which had 
been made the year before ; and stated that William H. Keating, 
a young professor, had been secretary of those meetings, and had 
showed much interest in the success of the plan ; and that I 
would find Mr. Keating at the University in Ninth Street. 



41 

I called on Mr. Keating, introduced myself, stated the objecl 
of my visit, and asked of him the history of the hist failure, and 
if he would join me in the present movement. Mr. Keating cor- 
dially responded and entered heartily into my views. 

He gave all the information required as to the former attempt 
and failure ; and an account of the Andersonian Institute of 
Glasgow, on which it was proposed to model, in some respects, 
the new Institution. 

After perusing these documents, we had several interviews, 
during which we agreed upon a name, and sketched a programme 
of the purposes we proposed to incorporate in the new Institution. 

It was then agreed, as a point-d^ -appui was necessary, to call 
a small meeting which would by proper action give an official 
start to the machine. Accordingly 1 summoned a third meeting, 
to which four gentlemen responded. Its action was confined to 
the passage of a resolution approving the design, and to the ap- 
pointment of a committee to carry out the idea by public meeting 
or otherwise. 

The minute of this meeting is the managers' book, and it con- 
sisted of five persons. The correctness of names is somewhat in 
doubt, as none were taken down at the time, but those which 
appear were appended some years afterwards from a memoran- 
dum in the hands of the chairman. This is, however, of no conse- 
quence, as tlieydid not project or found the Institute, but merely 
passed formal resolutions on which the founders acted. 

Having thus obtained the official authority of a meeting, the 
committee was convened. Mr. S. K. Wood and myself were ap- 
pointed a sub-committee to draft a constitution. This labor fell 
to my share, and when ready Mr. Wood was called to revise and 
adopt it, ready for the general committee. 

When commencing to read the draft Mr. Wood stopped me 
and said, " Thee need not read tbat paper. I have no doubt it is 
all right, and I will agree to report it ; but I want to satisfy thee 
that this Institution can never succeed and had better be aban- 
doned." 

I then listened to a long explanation of the quai-rcl between two 
rival architects, and learned that there existed such a feud be- 
tween them and their respective friends that in his opinion they 
could never coalesce ; and if either party took up the proposed 
plan, the Institute would be partisan in its character, and be 
opposed by the other. 

I name this to show the obstacles thrown in the way of the 
4 



42 

incipient Institution, and I tliink that was the real reason for the 
failure the year before. 

Unconvinced by Mr. Wood's reasoning, the draft of the con- 
stitution was reported and adopted by the committee at large, 
which also agreed upon its presentation for final adoption to a 
public meeting to be convened for the purpose of forming an as- 
sociation. 

Determined that the Institute should not be smothered by rival 
interests, Mr. Keating and myself, aided by Dr. R. E. Griffith 
and G. W. Smith, who were deeply interested in its success, had 
circulars printed to the number of 12 or 1500. One of us read 
from the Directory probable names, and the others addressed the 
notes to every person who from his occupation would be likely 
to favor the movement. These notes were distributed through 
the post-office, and the result was the assembling of more citizens 
than could be crowded into the county court-house, the place 
agreed on. 

This meeting, of which no record exists within my knowledge, 
was presided over by James Ronaldson, Esq., and after the pur- 
poses of the proposed Institution had been fully explained by Col. 
P. A. Browne and others, an animated discussion took place 
until the subject w^as fully understood by a highly intelligent as- 
sembly, who unanimously accorded their approbation of the pur- 
pose in view. After which the constitution was presented, criti- 
cally discussed, and after amendment was unanimously adopted, 
and a da}' fixed for the election of officers from those who should 
previously enroll their names, and which numbered some three 
to four hundred. 

The election having taken place, the Franklin Institute assumed 
its position among the Institutions of the State, and has since 
attained a gratifying pre-eminence. 

The meeting was a perfect success ; and the novel mode of 
throwing the Association open to the world without the interven- 
tion of cliques, made it universally popular. 

I have been, perhaps, more minute in details than would be 
proper for a public purpose, but having prepared them for your 
eye, it may be pardoned. 

I simply desire to secure a record of these proceedings some- 
where, and therefore request that, when you have perused this, 
you will consign it to one of your "pigeon holes" for future re- 
ference, if occasion should occur. 

Yours truly, 

S. V. MERRICK. 



43 



After tlie music had ceased, which followed Mr. 
Fralej's address, the President announced the next 
speaker, saying that, in seeking for some one to speak 
on the progress of the arts and sciences during the 
period comprised in the existence of the Franklin 
Institute, it was but natural that the committee 
should look to the University of Pennsylvania for a 
fitting person. The teachers of that great school have 
been prominent in our scientific work, so that some- 
how the two institutions seem almost as if connected. 
Thus, the Professor of Chemistry in the medical de- 
partment of the University is also a vice-president 
of the Franklin Institute; being himself not only a 
chemist and physician, but has shown himself to be 
a mechanic too in the highest sense of the word; he 
has made himself familiar with the progress of the 
mechanic arts, and knows well the part played by 
the sciences in that progress. I now introduce to 
the audience Dr. Robert E. Rogers, Vice-President 
of the Franklin Institute. 



ADDRESS OF PROF. ROBERT E. ROGERS. 

Mr. President — Ladies and GtENtlemen: 

For a country which will two years hence cele- 
brate only its first One Hundredth Anniversary as 
a Nation, occasions like the present are rare and of 
peculiar interest. 

Fifty years ago, the Franklin Institute of Phila- 
delphia pledged itself to the sciences and the arts ; 
on that occasion it promised them its love and de- 
votion ; during the interval that has since elapsed 



44 

they have lived together in happy companionship. 
To-night we celebrate their Golden WEDDiNa. 

Permit me, Mr. President, to thank you cordially 
for the words of compliment with which you have 
introduced me, and to express my high sense of the 
honor which the Institute has bestowed in assigning 
to me the responsible and difficult duty which I am 
called upon this evening to perform. 

This honor I should have felt myself constrained 
to decline, in view of the almost unlimited range 
of the theme and an oppressive consciousness of 
insufficient time — amid my other labors — for the 
preparation of anything worthy of the occasion, but 
for the assurance of friends, that all allowance will be 
made for any short-comings. I have, therefore, con- 
sented to attempt to sketch, in brief outline, some 
of the more important discoveries in science, and 
improvements in the arts, which have been made 
during these past fifty years — within the lifetime of 
the Franklin Institute. 

A little more than a hundred years ago, the 
genius of Watt produced a marvel in the shape of a 
practical steam engine ;(1)* and Fulton, and Stevens, 
and others in this country had, a little later, made 
successful application of it on rivers and lakes. But 
it was left for the period we are here met to com- 
memorate to spread the network of the iron rail, 
almost over the surface of the globe ; and to intro- 
duce the Locomotive — not, it is true, in its perfect 
form, but in those two vital features which, in 1829, 
were successfully applied by Robert Stephenson — 
namely, the injection of the exhaust steam into the 

* All the references in the text refer to the notes in the Ap- 
pendix. 



45 

smoke-stack, and the multitubular form of boiler ; 
the former originating in the fertile brain of Ste- 
phenson, the latter, it is stated, the suggestion of Mr. - 
Booth, who was then in the interest of the Liver- 
pool and Manchester Eailwaj Company; inventions 
which alone give to the machine that steam-generat- 
ing power adequate to fulfil the requirements of 
trade and travel, and which, to this day, have not 
been superseded. (2)* 

"Who has not read, with enthusiastic admiration, 
of the competitive trial on the Liverpool and Man- 
chester Railway, of the Rocket^ the Novelty^ and the 
Sans Fareil^ of October, 1829, in which the former, 
that of Stephenson, so triumphantly took the prize? 

At this period it had been ascertained that, on 
level tracts and with moderate loads, the tires of 
the driving wheels might be smooth. 

The next result to be accomplished was to dis- 
pense with cog-wheels and notched rails, stationary 
engines and inclined planes, and to enable the loco- 
motive not only to draw at high speed its ponderous 
train of cars over the level track, but also to climb 
steep grades by a poioei- luithin itself. This was 
elFected by the discovery made quite within the 
period we note, that by sufficiently loading the en- 
gine over the driving wheels, and by increasing the 
number of the driving wheels, their adhesion is ren- 
dered adequate to overcome the increased resistance 
due to gravity, and to enable it thereby with almost 
equal facility to cross the mountain as to traverse 
the plain. (3) 

Much credit is due to Mr. Moncure Robinson for 

* This is the usually accepted history of these improvements. 
For another statement see note 2 of Appendix. 



46 



his zeal and perseverance in urging the introduction 
into the service of the Reading Railroad of this class 
of locomotives, now so almost universally in use. 

The interest awakened at home and abroad by the 
performance of the Gowan & Marx, is so distinctly 
pointed out by the able writer, M. Michel Chevalier, 
in his treatise "• Histoire et Description des Yoies de 
Communication aux Etats Unis,"(4) and by the late 
Joseph Harrison, Jr., in his volume the ''Locomo- 
tive," that I deem it in place to make the quota- 
tions given in the Appendix.(5) 

To this period belongs also the mighty Marine En- 
gine, and the improved form of propeller,(6) which, 
revolutionizing navigation, have rendered the ocean 
also a crowded highway of swiftly moving commerce. 
K'ot a few of those here assembled will fail to recall 
the curiosity and amazement with which they be- 
held anchored in American waters, in succession, 
the "Sirius" and the "Great Western," the first 
steam-ships that had crossed the Atlantic, so proudlj^ 
solving the great problem that had agitated the 
nautical and commercial w^orld.(7) 

Glancing over the industrial arts, there would 
seem to be no end to the varied and multifarious 
directions in which the potent energies of steam 
have, in these recent years, been applied. 

At an earlier period had been invented the cotton 
gin of Whitney, to take the place of the tedious 
process of hand picking ; and the spinning mule of 
Cartwright, twisting from the thinnest fibre to the 
stoutest cable; and the power loom of Arkwright, 
weaving from the finest gossamer to the coarsest 
canvas or carpet ; but favorably comparing with 
these inventions, both in ingenuity and value to the 



47 

world, are the steam printing presses of Hoe, and 
of Bullock of our own time and country, and of 
Walter, of England,(8) which, with their almost 
living fingers, and, as by human guidance, lift, and 
carry, and turn over for the type the paper to be 
printed, and are able to throw off an edition of one 
hundred thousand double-printed sheets w^ithin the 
brief space of a few^ hours; and the Steam Hammer, 
in its improved forms, with its delicate touch or 
giant power that can shape the needle or forge the 
anchor. 

While we have snatched the oar from the sluggish 
barge, and torn the white canvas from the kissing 
breeze, and through the agencies of steam have 
covered the rivers and the seas with those quick 
and sure messeno-ers of trade, whose win2:s no cur- 
rent can arrest, and scarcely tide or tempest can 
delay, so in the manufactory, where the weary horse 
or fluctuating wind or stream slowly and unsteadily 
performed their appointed tasks, we have planted 
the engine with its highly improved capabilities, 
whose untiring energy whirls the spindle or throw^s 
the shuttle, and performs besides in its hundred 
handed dexterity, with new forms of machine rj^ 
every variety of labor, from that of pumping, saw- 
ing, planing, hoisting, grinding, pounding, boring, 
threshing, rolling, and propelling the furnace-blast, 
to that of dragging the ponderous gang plough over 
the stretches of our western prairies. 

It was as far back as 1790 that Galvani evoked 
the first fact in dynamic electricity ; this led to 
Yolta's discovery in 1800 of the Yoltaic pile, and 
the device of the crown of cups ; and was followed 
later in the same year by the startling discoveries 



48 

by Davy of the true nature of the battery's action, 
and by its agency of the metals of the alkalies and 
alkaline earths. 

While all honor and admiration are due to each of 
these gifted philosophers, it was reserved for a period 
almost within the last half century to witness the 
experiments of Oersted and Ampere in the deflection 
of the magnetic needle by the galvanic current, the 
magnetization of iron by the same influence, by 
Arago, and within this period, of Sturgeon and our 
own Prof. Henry(9) to produce the electro-magnet, 
and of Faraday — the once humble bookbinder — to 
write his name in letters of gold among men, for 
his extensive and profound researches in electricity, 
static and dynamic. 

Upon the combined discoveries and researches of 
these philosophers is based that second marvel of 
modern civilization — the Electric Telegraph — the 
most prominent forms of which are those of Morse 
and AVheatstone, the Mechanical(lO) and the ]^eedle 
or oscillating, the one for the land^ the other for the 
sea. 

Wonderful as is this achievement, it is but one of 
the innumerable fruits of these discoveries, which so 
much contribute to the comfort, enjoyment, and re- 
finement of mankind. 

Mark for instance the whole range of Electro- 
chemistry ; the decomposition by the galvanic cur- 
rent, of the metallic salts in the processes of electro- 
plating of copper, nickel, silver, and gold, whereby 
engravings of maps and verniers, busts, medals, and 
other objects of use and ornament may be reproduced 
as perfect fac-similes, and the beautiful semblance 
of the precious metals made to take the place of 



49 

base and less attractive alloys; and the dissipation 
of the threatening tumor and treatment of other 
maladies by its destructive chemical or heating 
powers. 

And then the electro-carbon light whose splendor 
is only surpassed by that of the sun himself. And 
again the no less powerful but more convenient 
magneto-electric light, wdiich now^ glows from the 
towers of Le Hevre and Dungeness to warn the 
storm-beaten and bewildered mariner as he approaches 
the rock-bound coast. (11) 

Witness through electro-magnetism the various 
signal instruments, as the burglar-alarm, the fire- 
alarm, the factory and depot-watchman's check 
clock, and more valuable perhaps than many of 
these, the chronogrcqoh^ by which the longitudes of 
places on the earth's surface are ascertained with 
more precision than ever before attained, replacing 
the old methods of determining the occurrence of 
celestial phenomena, such as the transit of stars and 
planets, wherein the observation is recorded directly 
by the touch of an electro-naagnetic trigger, a 
method known and recognized as the American 
method^ instead of by the eye and hand. 

In this connection must be named the whole cata- 
logue of the constant galvanic batteries, those of 
Daniel, Grove, Bunsen, and Callan, and the water 
batteries of Gassiot, and that of the Bichromate of 
Potassium and Sulphuric Acid, and later, the Gravity 
battery, w^ithout whose agency the manifold modern 
applications of this subtile power could not have 
been accomplished. (12) And here too we must men- 
tion the steam electrical machine devised by Arm- 
strong, and so fully investigated by Faraday. 



50 

Within this same period we are also to note the 
remarkable discovery of Diamagnetism by that great 
rnan and his researches therein, and the discovery 
by Seebeck of a whole new class of phenomena 
under the title of Thermo-electricity, and also the 
device of those curious and instructive instruments 
for the production of induced electricity, the Ruhm- 
korff and Ritchie coils, the Holtz and Toepler and 
other non-friction electrical machines with their 
brilliant companions for illustration, the vacuum 
tubes of Gassiot, Geissler, and Gaiffe, and the cas- 
cade of Gassiot ; and under the same head we are to 
make record of the practical applications of these 
agencies as seen in the blasting of rocks, and the 
exploding of mii:^s and torpedoes in marine warfare. 

"\Ye turn next to the field of astronomy, and here 
it is curious to note, in passing, that a period of fifty 
years (as referred to by Sir David Brewster) seems to 
have been the interval between each important step 
in connection with the great instrument of research 
in that science — the Tflesco'pe. 

After the telescope of Galileo, came that of IN'ew- 
ton ; and fifty years after that of I^ewton, was con- 
structed that of Hadle}^ ; fifty years after Hadley's, 
the instrument of Sir William Herschel, by which so 
many grand and startling discoveries were achieved. 

Fifty years later brings us to our own epoch, when, 
we are permitted to gaze with astonished vision 
through those marvellous productions of Lord Rosj«, 
Alvan Clark, and Lassel ; instruments capable of 
bringing the moon, lying in space 240,000 miles 
away ,(13) to the near distance of 90 miles, revealing 
its rocks, mountains, valleys, and extinct volcanoes : 
"the crescent of the planet Yenus with its moun- 



51 

tainous outline," the system of double and treble stars, 
the nebulae, and starry clusters of every variety of 
shape, and those " spiral nebular formations," which, 
while they awaken unbounded curiosity and restless 
speculation, continue to baffle human comprehension. 

In this domain of science we are called upon to 
record, as made within the period of which we are 
now speaking, observations and discoveries of the 
highest interest. Thus, those regularly recurring 
showers of meteors, which, within the last half 
century, have so much attracted the attention of 
astronomers, and which were first distinctly proved 
by our countryman, Olmsted, to be rings or groups 
of bodies, revolving around the sun, in orbits inter- 
secting the pathway of the earth, have, of late, been 
considered as arranging themselves into some rela- 
tionship with Cometary forms, and are regarded as 
being most probably so many great companies of 
far out-lying skirmishers to those attenuated bodies. 

Within this period the list of Asteroids, which 
was before only four^ has been increased to more 
than one hundred and thirty; and through the patient 
toil, philosophical acumen in dealing with the intri- 
cate question of planetary perturbations, and the 
profound mathematical calculations of Leverrier, 
Adams, and Peirce, a new world has been discovered, 
to take its place among the sisterhood of planets, 
having eight times the diameter, or more than Jive 
hundred times the cubical mass of the planet upon 
which we dwell — a discovery which will shine forth 
in eternal commemoration of one of the grandest 
efforts of the human intellect in modern times. 

Cognate with astronomy is the science of optics. 

During the past fifty years whole regions of hith- 
erto unexplored territory have been mapped out; 



52 

distinct and totally new branches of the subject have 
sprung into existence. Indeed, it may be questioned 
whether any department of human knowledge has 
been so prolific in discovery and so rich in the ac- 
cessions of truth within this period as this one of 
Light. 

The Emission theory of ISTewton was opposed, and 
the doctrine of Wave motion was advocated by Huy- 
gen and Euler long anterior, yet the wave doctrine 
did not take its final shape until a much later period. 

The philosophical mind of Dr. Thomas Young, 
who died no earlier than 1829, had grasped this 
theory of light, and had contributed much towards 
establishing it by his experiments and calculations. 
There was needed, however, some further testimony 
in its behalf to secure its general adoption. This 
was supplied by the experiments and mathematical 
calculations of Fresnell ; and it has now become the 
universally accepted view. 

This point established — and it has been done with- 
in the past ^ve decades — the lifetime to-day of the 
Franklin Institute, we may now call up, in rapid 
narration, not attempting any strictly chronological 
order, some of the more prominent discoveries in 
this branch of science. 

Although Malus had discovered the polarization 
of light by reflection as earlj^ as 1810, and the same 
philosopher, and Biot and Brew^ster had a little later, 
and independently of each other, discovered the same 
result by refraction, yet we can claim justly for the 
period in which we are now interested, the addition 
of many important observations and discoveries 
which have contributed to render this branch of 



53 

knowlecVe one of the most interestins: as well as 
one of the most perfect of the physical sciences. 
Among the illustrious names to be mentioned in this 
connection, besides those referred to, are Arago and 
Sir John Herschel. 

While the great improvements referred to, in the 
telescope, were in progress, the instrument by which 
we are enabled to look into the intimate structure of 
the materials around us, was receiving steadily new 
accessions, both to its power and to the variety ot 
its applications. Although the Microscope, in its 
early and simple form, was a means of important 
discovery especially in the structure of organic forms, 
it was not until within the last fifty years, that it 
received those improvements, which fitted it for ac- 
curate and precise research. 

These improvements, commencing with Pritchard, 
Oberhauser, and Chevallier, and advancing in the 
workshops of Eoss, Powel and Leland, Smith and 
Beck, Nachet, and others in Europe, and in those of 
Spencer, Wales, Towles, and Zentmayer in this 
country, have at length given to the naturalist and 
Investigator in Physics a means of exploration, 
which, in the marvels of its discoveries among the 
almost infinitely small parts of bodies, rivals and 
perhaps excels the stupendous revelations of the 
telescope among the masses and spaces of the 
heavens. 

By the increased power and perfection of its com- 
posite objectives, and the use of polarizing and 
other appendages, it has become one of the most 
precious of our " instruments of precision," giving 
us, among other results, so clear and faithful a view 
of the minutest living structure, as to enable us 



54 

to mark the elementary cell in each stage of its de- 
velopment, and leading ns to that great physiologi- 
cal law which makes the living microscopic cell the 
physical origin of every organic form and of all 
organic growth. 

I^or let us omit to mention, that while thus enlarg- 
ing our philosophical conception of the relation of 
living tissues and forms, it becomes in the hands ot 
the physician, an instrument of essential daily use in 
judging of the nature and seat of disease, guiding to 
a wise diagnosis and an enlightened treatment. 

In connection with the chemical action of light, a 
vast field of observation and discovery has been ex- 
plored. 

It is probable that Watt and Bolton in 1799 suc- 
ceeded in taking sun pictures on paper, although no 
written account of their method has been transmitted 
to us ; and it is well established that in 1802, Sir 
Humphry Davy and Thomas Wedge wood actually 
accomplished the same result ; but it was not until 
[N'iepce and Daguerre, of Paris, between the years 
1827 and 1839 successfully devised the method of 
producing those extraordinary heliographic pictures, 
known as the Daguerrotype. 

Who that is of suflicient age does not remember 
the amazement and delight with which he first in- 
spected those charming pictures of trees and build- 
ings, landscapes and grazing herds, with all their 
minutest details sketched by the sun, on the silver 
plate with his own actinic pencil ; and then a little 
later their intense enjoyment through the sentiment 
involved, of those speaking portraits of loving friends, 
first produced by our philosophic investigator Prof. 
Draper ? 



55 

In 1839 Mr. Fox Talbot first successfully produced 
what he called " photogenic" drawings, upon paper 
first charged with iodide of silver, then dipped in 
nitrate of silver and subsequently in iodide of potas- 
sium, and after exposure to the object developed to 
view, by washing in a mixture of aceto-nitrate and 
gallic acid, and finally fixed by means of hyposul- 
phite of sodium. 

From this has sprung the exquisite art of modern 
photogrcqjhy^ which in its many sided applications 
has become a familiar and almost necessary member 
of every household. 

Quickly following the Talbotype, we have had de- 
vised in rapid succession an almost endless variety of 
modifications of the paper photograph, and we now 
witness as but of yesterday that triumph of patient 
skill in this same progress, the Woodbury type, which 
first calls upon the sun to paint his faithful picture 
upon the sensitized film, then transfers it with un- 
failing accuracy to a metallic plate, from which it 
may be printed on paper by means of appropriate 
ink, as in lithographic or copperplate work. 

To this may be added the still more recent, and 
perhaps more perfect invention just coming into use, 
which, under the name of the Heliotype accomplishes 
the same end by printing directly from the film itself, 
hardened after it has received the picture. 

]^or should we, in this enumeration of the achieve- 
ments of photography, omit to mention its uses to the 
astro7iomer. 

The world has already become familiar with those 
remarkable photographic pictures of the moon, ob- 
tained by our ingenious countryman, Mr. Rutherford, 
in which is depicted, with marvellous fidelity, every 



56 

feature of our satellite which the telescope reveab. 
And at this very moment, another of our country- 
men, the astronomer Gould, in his observatory at 
Cordoba, on the plains of the Upper La Plata, is 
engaged in mapping, by photographic instruments 
and processes, and with a precision unequalled by 
any other method, the constellations of the Southern 
hemisphere. 

In 1802, Dr. Wollaston, allowing the light of the 
sun, after passing through a narrow slit in a darkened 
room, to fall upon a prism of glass, observed a few 
dark lines crossing at different places, the prismatic 
spectrum. 

In 1814, the skilful optician, Fraunhofer, counted 
and mapped as many as 576 of these lines. He 
ascertained that light so treated, if it were of the 
sun, whether as his direct rays or by reflection, as 
from the moon or any of the planets, gave these lines 
always in precisely the same relative position to each 
other, and to the colors of the spectrum ; and, on the 
other hand, that when the light of the stars, which are 
self-luminous, was so observed, it gave for each star 
its own dark lines, and differently located from those 
of the sun. He was able to assign no reason for these 
phenomena, but concluded that they were due to a 
cause beyond the influence of our Atmosphere. 

After an interval of some years, in which little of 
direct observation had been made, a new impulse was 
given to the investigation of these phenomena. 
J. W. Draper, of this country, M. Faucoult of 
France, Drs. Balfour Stewart, and Miller of Eng- 
land, had enunciated a doctrine known as that of 
" exchanges," more especially in connection with 



57 

the phenomena of radiation and absorption of 
caloric.(14)* 

This, followed out with the aid of sagacious gene- 
ralizations and ingeniously devised experiments, in 
the hands oi' Kirchoff, culminated in that grand dis- 
covery which, under the name of spectrum analysis^ 
not only furnishes the means of the most delicate 
qualitative determination of substances even to the 
discovery of new elements, but extending its powers 
beyond the earth, has supplied us with a solar and 
stellar chemistry. 

Truly the revelations of science are more strange 
than fiction. 

Who that saw with Wollaston, for the first time, 
a few dark lines traced at intervals across the column 
of the prismatic spectrum, could have conceived that 
they should lead to the amazing discoveries and 
generalizations which have followed, and that to-day 
we should witness KirchofiT, Bunsen, Huggens, Lock- 
yer, Jansen, and Secchi, pointing their spectroscope 
to the skies to bid the sun, and planets, and stars, and 
even the comets and nebulse themselves to reveal to 
man the hidden secrets of their nature and composi- 
tion ? 

I^ext in sequence we may properly speak of the 
kindred branch of science — Acoustics — that fascinat- 
ing subject which has ever been a source of delight 
to the student of the laws which govern the pheno- 

* Dr. John W. Draper has, in the number of "Nature" for 
July 30th of the present year, entered a reclaimer, in connection 
with the announcement of the fundamental facts, on which rests 
the doctrine of Spectrum Analysis. I deem it due that distin- 
guished investigator to quote his statement. See Appendix. 
5 



58 

mena of sound, and of exquisite enjoyment in its 
musical relation to the mass of mankind. 

Yet it is interesting and singular to note that^. 
while men have lived in the grand musical triumphs 
of each period in succession, musical composition 
and execution have been, in a great measure, inde- 
pendent of the science of its physical phenomena. 
It is, indeed, to be doubted whether Handel, Hay- 
den, Mozart, or Bethoven ever concerned themselves 
at all with the wave length of this note or that, or 
whether they even knew accurately the relative 
length of strings or pipes, which produced one octave 
above another. 

Therefore, since the esthetic relations, and all the 
charms of music could be realized without the labors 
of the experimenter and the natural philosopher, it 
is not unnatural that within the term of years in 
which we are now particularly interested, no great 
number of m.arked discoveries of facts should have 
been made. Yet so attractive is the whole subject 
of sound, not only as a study within itself, but in 
its relations to the phenomena of light and heat, 
which it is so well adapted to elucidate, it was to be 
expected that it would be made the theme of exten- 
sive illustration. Therefore in the department of 
experimental acoustics, few branches of science have 
within these recent years witnessed a progress so 
great. To the ingenuity and skill of Savart, See- 
beck, Cladni, "Wheatstone, Lissajeau, Helmholtz, 
Koenig, Kundt, and Mayer, of Hoboken, we are in- 
debted for the large portion of the instructive ap- 
paratus seen at the present time on the counter of 
the lecture room. (15) 

Let us next visit the laboratory of the chemist. 



59 

look into the furnace of the metallurgist, and enter 
the dje-house of the manufacturer, to take account 
of a few of the results which have been accomplished 
in these directions within the last fift}^ years ; and 
here a processson of almost endless length passes 
before our view. 

"We witness, just on the verge of the period we 
are discussing, the first distinct isolation, from Peru- 
vian bark, of that precious alkaloid Qidnia^ whose 
wondrous sanative powers have rescued so many 
sufferers from malarious poisoning. We see im- 
provements made in the extraction of nearly all the 
remedial proximate principles, as Morphia, Quinia, 
Strychnia, and the like, and the application to pur- 
poses of blasting and mining of explosive compounds, 
Fulminating mercury. Fulminating silver, White 
Powder, Gun Cotton, and I^itro-glycerine, with its 
modifications Dinamite and " Giant Powder." 

We note the new treatment by Tilghman of fats 
and oils for the separation of stearic and margaric 
acid from glycerine for candles, and the uses of that 
latter substance in medicine as well as in the arts ; 
the manipulation of Gum-elastic by which it is on the 
one ha,nd rendered soluble and suitable to form belt- 
ing, tubing, bags, and waterproof shoes, coats, blan- 
kets, tents, etc., and on the other turned into Vulcanite 
and Ebonite with their numberless applications; and 
of Gutta Percha too, that wonderful gum, so plastic 
when warm, so firm and resisting when cold, and 
so highly endowed with electro-insulating power. 

We should do injustice to the profound science, 
and the skill displayed in the chemical arts, did we 
not here note those magnificent pigments and dyeing 
materials which have, within recent years, been re- 



60 

vealed by the treatment of coal tar, tlie waste pro- 
duct of gas making. I allude to the various Aniline 
colors whose rich brilliancy of tints vie with the 
hues of the solar spectrum. 

These are all dependent for their production upon 
the discovery of Benzole^ made by Faraday. 

Among these products we have a black, blue, 
green, brown, purple, pink, violet, yellow, and a red, 
adapted for dyeing, for calico printing, the manu- 
facture of the lake pigments and lithographic inks. 
And, more singular than all. Alizarine^ which re- 
presents the coloring principles of madder furnish- 
ing the first example of the synthetical production of 
a natural coloring matter. 

Thus we see, derived from the most humble origin^ 
a rich variety of shades wherewith art may adorn 
her work, or beauty and fashion array themselves. 

In immediate connection with this theme, I would 
here refer to those startling discoveries of Berthelot 
and others recently given to the world, in w^iich it 
was ascertained that by the synthetic method, or by 
what may be termed the inverted process of chemical 
reaction, a large number of organic substances may 
be produced, such as alcohol, wood spirit, grape 
sugar, formic acid, and vinegar, without the instru- 
mentality of a previous organic substance. 

While thus referring to the recent labors of chem- 
istry in works conducing to the power and wealth 
and civilization of the world, we must not forget 
those beneficient discoveries which have secured to 
man immunity from pain in circumstances of other- 
wise agonizing suffering ; for it is to this science that 
we are indebted for those anaesthetic agents — nitrous 
oxide gas, ether, and chloroform — which are now so 



61 

universally employed in medicine and surgery, and 
which are recognized by all as a precious boon to the 
operating surgeon, and a priceless blessing to suffer- 
ing humanity. 

Leaving untouched, for want of time, the whole 
of the sciences of geology and natural history, we 
may glance at a few of the developments which 
have been made within the last half century per- 
tainino; to minino; interests. 

At the beginning of this period bituminous coals 
were taken from the earth in Great Britain and on 
the continent in quantities measured annually by 
the few hundreds of thousands of tons ; now, the 
quantity is summed up by millions. To-day the 
yearly product of Great Britain alone is not less 
than one hundred and ten millions of tons, an amount, 
if estimated in mechanical energy, equal to a labor- 
ing population of not fewer than twenty-Jive millions 
of able-bodied men. 

We have to record as discovered within this 
period, the vast beds of anthracite coal, the black 
diamond of our own State — more precious than the 
mines of Golconda — which has added so vastly to 
the prosperity and wealth, not only of this Com- 
monwealth, but to that of the whole country ; to 
refer to the petroleum of our western counties, 
which, until within recent years, liad been known 
only in small quantity and as a useless object of 
curiosity, now flowing or being pumped from innu- 
merable artesian wells, and yielding, under chemical 
treatment, lubricating and burning oils, volatile 
products, as gasoline, rigolene, etc., with solid 
paraffine for candles and telegraphic insulating pur- 
poses; also to the mines of California, Colorado, 



62 

I^Tevada, Utah, and Australia, rich in their precious 
treasures of gold, silver, and mercury ; and in this 
connection, to those extraordinary devices of engi- 
neering skill, those mountain canals or flumes, and 
powerful hydraulic jets, for battering down the vast 
auriferous gravel hills of some of these regions, for 
the washing out and collection of their precious 
contents. 

In metcdlurgic processes great progress has been 
made in the extraction and treatment of iron, cop- 
per, lead, quicksilver, nickel, aluminium, and the 
precious metals. 

Thus the anthracite furnace has taken the place 
of the charcoal furnace, and the hot blast has 
superseded the cold blast in the smelting of iron ; 
and more striking than these is the improved manu- 
facture of steel by the remarkable method of Besse- 
mer, accomplished by driving a blast of air through 
molten iron just after it has been received from the 
furnace in a clay-lined crucible, a process Avhich 
seems destined to revolutionize this great branch of 
industry. 

And still more recently we have to hail as of to- 
day, the discovery of that remarkable alloy of cop- 
per and tin associated with a small percentage of 
phosphorus, which seems to endow it with proper- 
ties of great value. This substance has been named 
Phosphor-bronze. 

In the art of war, too, we are called upon to 
chronicle vast changes. Whether these changes, 
which are pointed to as improvements, and as mark- 
ing a higher civilization, are really blessings or 
otherwise, depends upon the result, whether a 
^ greater and more inevitable destruction of life and 



63 

property has had the effect of leading more gene- 
rally to the substitution of arbitration for a resort to 
arms. 

The percussion cap and wafer, with their many 
modes of use, among them the needle-gun, have su- 
perseded the old flint lock ; the twisted barrel has 
replaced the smooth bore ; the turreted monitor has 
found its way into naval architecture in place of the 
high-floating ship ; the iron armor has been substi- 
tuted for the wooden sides, and the light ball has 
yielded its place to the ponderous steel-pointed mis- 
sile, charged with its destructive fulminate, until 
the grim sarcasm comes to have a peculiar point, 
that ships are made so strong that no balls can pierce 
them^ and balls so heavy^ and sent so swiftly that no 
ships can resist them. 

In the earlier views in regard to the actions and 
changes of matter, the opinion was entertained that 
substances were often annihilated, and that with this 
ended all that pertained to them. Thus, that in the 
burning of a mass of coal, by the combustion it was 
destroyed, and that the transient heat which it 
evolved after communicating itself to surrounding 
objects was then dissipated and lost. 

Another view has now come to be adopted, this 
is, that seeming destruction of a body is only its 
transformation into some other shape, and the dis- 
appearance of the energy attending that transmu- 
tation is only the conversion of one force into another. 
The latter statement is, in brief, an expression of the 
modern doctrine of the " correlation and conserva- 
tion of the physical forces." 

The first step towards this great generalization is 
doubtless due to our own countryman, Benjamin 



64 

Thompson, afterwards Count Eumford, whose famous 
experiment of the rotation of a solid plunger re- 
volving within a hollow cylinder of iron surrounded 
by water, demonstrated that heat might be pro- 
duced for an indefinite length of time by continuous 
friction, and led him to the sagacious conclusion that 
the motion was actually converted into heat; in other 
words, that the visible motion of the revolving mass 
was changed by the friction into a vibratory motion 
of the particles of the apparatus and surrounding 
water, and that this latter motion constituted the 
heat developed, that is, that heat is but a '"'mode of 
motion." 

This conclusion, in recent years confirmed by 
various researches and by like processes of experi- 
ment and mathematical analysis, through the labors 
of Mayer, Joule, Grove, Wm. Thompson, Helmholtz, 
Clausius, Faraday, and Tyndall, has been developed 
into a comprehensive law now universally accepted, 
a law Avhich embraces not only mechanical power 
and heat, but also light, electricity, magnetism, 
and chemical action in one grand bond of mutual 
correlation or equivalency. 

To complete the list of topics that might come 
within the province of the duty assigned me, it 
would be necessary to transfer to my pages the 
contents of the scientific and practical journals of the 
world. I will, therefore, close the enumeration by 
naming, without adhering to chronological order, 
only a few out of the many that have a claim to 
consideration. Thus, the mechanical mowers and 
reapers, the Ericsson air-engine, the gas-engines of 
Lenoir and Hugon, the infinite variety of sewing 
machines, the fog-horn, street railways, the ice ma- 



65 

chine, the sand blast of the Tilghman Brothers, the 
gunpowder pile-driver, the manufacture of carbonate 
of sodium by Le Blanc's process, and the revival of an 
old process by the reaction between carbonate of am- 
monium and chloride of sodium, the manufacture of 
lucifer matches, the preservation of meats and vege- 
tables, the silvering of glass by metallic silver instead 
of by mercury, the introduction of carbolic acid and 
the permanganate of potassium as disinfectants, the 
preparation of oxygen by the continuous method, 
and of chlorine by the revival of the binoxide of 
manganese. And in connection with education, the 
creation of institutions for instruction in applied 
sciences, of Institutes of TecJmology (16). And, lastly, 
in the noble field of benevolence, the introduction 
of the humane and merciful treatment of those de- 
prived of reason, in place of the cruelties of the 
strait jacket and the terrors of the ducking stool. 

Did time permit, I would attempt to recall to 
your minds in detail, however imperfect the effort, 
wherein this Institute has done its part, but 
to do this I should weary your patience. I will, 
therefore, simply refer to the experiments it has 
conducted in the investisration of the strens^th of 
materials; to its careful search into the causes of 
steam-boiler explosions ; to the numerous reports of 
its committees upon matters within its province ; to 
its library of valuable scientific and practical works 
for consultation ; its collections of minerals and 
models, the one a help and to give incentive to the 
study of an important practical branch of natural 
science bearing upon mining interests, the other 
facilitating inventive talent ; to the courses of in- 
structive lectures delivered during each winter 



66 

upon physics, chemistry, geology, and other scien- 
tific and practical branches ; to its monthly meet- 
ings for the reading and discussion of papers upon 
science and the arts, and the exhibition of novel 
inventions ; and then to those unseen but deeply 
felt influences which it has exerted, in aiding seekers 
after information in various directions of thought, 
by guiding them to persons and authors best capable 
of supplying their wants. 

I would refer also to its Drawing School, where 
large numbers of young men and women nightly re- 
sort, for the acquirement, under able instructors, of 
that art so valuable in almost every walk of life. 

And, lastly, to its Journal, the pioneer reporter 
of the mechanic arts in this country, which, keep- 
ing pace with the progress of science and industry, 
is to-day a living representative of many of the 
largest interests of our country. With such a record 
of the past, maj^ not our Institute anticipate yet 
brighter prospects in the future, and should we not 
all exclaim in earnest words, ^'' Esto perpetua''' f 

APPENDIX. 

(1) In 1763 James Watt, of Greenock, Scotland, devised liis 
first form of loio pressure Steam Engine. In this engine the 
steam was condensed directly within the steam cylinder. 

In 1765 he introduced the use of a separate condenser, thereby 
greatly economizing the steam. In this form it was single act- 
ing — that is, it received the steam on but one side of the piston, 
and was only adapted to the purposes of pumping. 

In 1784 he caused the steam to act upon both sides of the piston, 
and thus invented the double-acting engine. 

Between this date and 1800 he added many important details — 
improved the system of condensation, and finally added the cut- 
oft" by which the steam could be used expansively, thus perfect- 
ing the machine which, in its great 'princi'ples has not since been 
displaced. 



67 

(2) Loug anterior to this period Oliver Evans, of Philadelphia, 
emploj^ed a single large tube or flue passing through his boilers, 
to enable the heated products of combustion to act more efficiently 
on the water. 

It is due to this highly gifted inventor to state that he was the 
first to put into practical application the use of high steam, in 
what is now known as the liigh-pressure steam-engine — and 
that he is also a competitor for the honor of having first applied 
the paddle wheel to the propulsion of boats. 

Prof Tresca, of the Conservatoire des Arts et Metiers, Paris, 
in his Treatise on the Steam Engine, awards to Joel Barlow, 
author of the "Columbiad," the credit of priority in the inven- 
tion of the Multitubular Boiler. 

A gentleman who has had access to the original papers of 
Oliver Evans, has furnished the following statement, which I 
deem it proper to here quote : — 

" The first essential to the modern locomotive, is the high pres- 
sure steam-engine, and British writers generally accord it to 
Messrs. Trevithick and Vivian, who in 1802, took out in England 
a patent therefor; but, in the American edition of the 2d English 
edition of Wood's 'Treatise on Railroads,' 1831, Messrs. Tre- 
vithick and Vivian are distinctly charged with having copied, 
without acknowledgment, the plans and specifications of Oliver 
Evans, which in 1794-5 were sent by him to England, in charge 
of Mr. Joseph Stacy Sampson. I also find that in a work entitled 
the 'Young Steam Engineer's Guide,' written by Oliver Evans, 
and published in Philadelphia in 1805, Mr. Evans speaks of 
having in 1794-5, sent 'drawings, specifications, and explana- 
tions' of his plans to England, ' to be shown to steam engineers.' 
Mr. Evans also speaks of Mr. Joseph Stacy Sampson, of Boston, 
who, he states, carried the papers to England, and ' died there, 
but the papers may have survived.' 

"The multitubular boiler, which, next to the high -pressure 
engine, forms the most essential part of the steam carriage, is by 
Smiles, who wrote in 1857, accorded to George Stephenson, but 
I find that both Nicholas Wood, and Dr. Lardner (high British 
authorties on the steam-engine), who respectively wrote in 1831 
and 1835, distinctly declare the multitubular boiler to be due to 
Mr. Booth, Treasurer of the Liverpool and Manchester Eailway, 
who they state suggested to Mr. Stephenson the use of the tubes, 
to conduct the heated air through the boiler of his engine — the 
'Rocket' — which won the prize in the competitive test on the 



68 

Liverpool and Manchester Eailway. Indeed, both Mr. Wood 
and Dr. Lardner concur in stating, that a portion of the £500. 
prize won by the ' Rocket' was paid to Mr. Booth. 

" It is a curious fact that the multitubular boiler in all its essen- 
tial particulars existed in America almost one-third of a century 
before its introduction into Great Britain. The boiler which 
Oliver Evans had devised to generate steam for his high-pressure 
engine had a tube to conduct the heated air through the water, 
and in 1803 John Stevens, of Hoboken, New Jersey, took out a 
patent for a boiler composed entirely of tubes, which, in 1805, 
he also patented in England. A boiler constructed by Mr. Stevens 
was ' 2 feet long, 15 inches wide, and 10 or 12 inches high, and 
consisted of 81 tubes, 2 feet long, and 1 inch in diameter.' But, 
unfortunately, all of these tubes were filled with heated water 
instead of heated air. 

" In 1791, Col. James Rumsey, of Virginia, took out a patent for 
a boiler consisting of 'homogeneous incurvated tubes.' Plans 
and specifications of all three of these boilers found their way to 
England ; Col. Rumsey' s as early as 1792-3. Is it too much to 
surmise, that the principles of construction they severally devel- 
oped, ultimately suggested the multitubular boiler of the existing 
locomotive ? 

"Smiles claims for Stephenson the introduction of the exhaust 
steam in the chimney stack, for the purpose of increasing the 
draught of the furnace, but Nicholas Wood writes that in ' the 
introduction of those engines it was necessary to resort to the 
application of waste steam thrown upwards to create a sufficient 
current of air through the fire. ' It seems that to Mr. Hackworth, 
rather than to Mr. Stephenson, we are indebted for the complete 
development of the principle. 

"Smiles claims for Stephenson the discovery that sufficient 
adhesion existed between the w^heels of the steam carriage and 
the rails for the purpose of locomotion, but Nicholas Wood, who 
was present when Stephenson's engine was tried, accords the credit 
to Mr. Blackett, and, speaking of Mr. Stephenson's engine, writes, 
'grooved sheaves w^ ere fixed upon the hinder travelling wheels 
of the engine, and similar grooved sheaves upon the fore wheels 
of the convoy carriage containing the coals and water, with an 
endless chain, working over each, to procure the adhesion of the 
wheels of the convoy carriage, in addition to the adhesion of the 
engine wheels ; but on trial it was not found necessary to resort 
to the aid of this contrivance.' 



" In short, if Nicliolas Wood, Dr. Lardner, and others who 
wrote nearly one-fourth of a century before Smiles, made truthful 
record, the locomotive owes but little to the inventive genius of 
Mr. Stephenson. Grave doubts exist as to the validity of every 
important claim advanced by Smiles for him as the author, or 
even improver of the steam carriage. Mr. Stephenson doubtless 
acted an important part in executing the inventions of other and 
more ingenious minds. But tliat, and that alone, appears to have 
been the full extent of the services he rendered. 

" But to return to Oliver Evans, of whom the Mechanic's Maga- 
zine, published in London in 1850, speaks as the 'first projector 
of steam travelling. ' It appears from the preface to the American 
edition of Wood on Railroads, that before the termination of the 
18th century, Mr. Evans ' urged the adoption of railways and 
locomotives in lieu of canals.' The same authority declares, that 
' Mr. Evans urged in repeated addresses to the public, the con- 
struction of a railroad from Philadelphia to New York, and in 
1809 attempted to form a company for the purpose of effecting it, 
purposing the investment of his whole fortune in the enterprise.' 

" In order to accomplish his purpose, Oliver Evans — ruthlessly, 
as it were — stripped from the steam-engine the condenser and air 
pumps, inventions of the celebrated James Watt, which by him 
and the world were thought to be absolutely essential thereto. 
Mr. Evans retained the valve movement due Mr. Watt, with the 
exception that he introduced the cut-oflF, and ' thus (to use his 
own w^ords) the piston is driven by strong puflfs of steam, the 
same that the air-gun drives its bullets: ' 

" He declared his improvement to be so great ' as to be without 
a parallel,' but the opponents of innovation were a formidable 
obstacle to its introduction. Mr. Evans writes that ' those learned 
in error on this subject oppose their theories, corollaries and 
demonstrations ; those who are well versed in the principles of 
Watt and Bolton's engine, oppose their darling vacuums. The 
English steam engineers bring forward their cocks, induction 
pipes, air pumps, hot wells, sniffling valves, etc. etc' At length 
Mr. John Harrison, Messrs. Richards & Simmons, and Messrs. 
Burtis, Moore & Keen, all of Philadelphia, purchased his engines, 
and they worked so satisfactorily, that each of the parties indi- 
cated concurred in publicly declaring over their respective signa- 
tures, 'tliat they would rather pay Oliver Evans the price of one 
of his engines, than accept as a present one of English construc- 
tion.' Edward Mason, Jr., Daniel Bates, Hercules Whitney, 



70 

Henry C. CoflBn, and Isaac Stanford, all of Providence, Rhode 
Island, who were mutually concerned in works which they stated 
required 'great power,' did also over their signatures declare 
that they had two of Oliver Evans's engines at work, that they 
had compared it with Bolton and Watt's, ' and after satisfactory 
investigation we gave Mr. Evans's the preference, and have had 
it a sufficient time at work to prove its real worth, durability, and 
cheapness compared with others.' Tliey added that 'his method 
of warming apartments by the heat of the steam of the engine 
w^e consider a new and valuable discovery, consequently the ex- 
pense of fuel chargeable to the engine is proportionably reduced.' 

"From that time forward the use of Mr. Evans's engine be- 
came general, and to-day it has so completely superseded that of 
Mr. Watt, that with the exception of some engine for a steam- 
boat on the rivers running into the Atlantic, the low-pressure 
engine is almost unknown in the United States, 

"In the absence of railways in the United States, Mr. Evans 
proposed to introduce the steam carriage on turnpike roads, and 
to that end.made a proposition to the President and Directors of 
the Lancaster Turnpike Company. The original draft of the 
proposition is on my table as I write. It is dated September 26th, 
1804. With his proposition, he directed attention to his inven- 
tions and improvements for the manufacture of flour, also to his 
inventions for making wire cards by machinery, etc. etc. He 
said, 'This statement I make to you, to show, that I have 
always hitherto been successful in my mechanical improvements, 
and have never once failed in any attempt.' But he. did fail to 
induce the company to cooperate. The elevator, that to-day is so 
much used for the handling of grain, was one of his inventioDS. 
Some years before his death, Oliver Evans offered to build a 
Steam carriage that, on a level railway, should run fifteen miles 
an hour, for double price, if it attained that speed, and nothing 
if it did not. At the date of this ofler (and for many years after- 
wards) the highest speed of the best English engines was but 
seven miles per hour. But to his family, and to his intimates, 
he spoke of a much higher rate of speed. A gentleman has in- 
formed the writer, that when he was a youth, Mr. Evans de- 
clared to Judge Peters, and other gentlemen present, ' this boy, 
(putting his hand on the boy's head) ' will live to ride behind one 
of my engines as fast as a bird can fly,' 'which prediction,' my 
informant said, 'I have lived to see verified.' It is due to 
British writers to state, that some of them have gone beyond the 



71 

patent of Trevithick and Vivian, and have frankly conceded the 
high pressure engine to Oliver Evans. 

"I have thrown the foregoing facts together ; perhaps at some 
future day a more detailed narrative will show the enormous ma- 
terial benefits that this country — and indeed the entire civilized 
world — owes to the inventive genius, and unrequited labors of 
Oliver Evans." 

But ^Ir. Evans never lived to see his darling project of steam 
travelling by rail fulfilled in the United States. 

He died in 1819. 

(3) 3Ir. Joseph Harrison, Jr., of Philadelphia, of the firm of 
Eastwick & Harrison, in 1839, at the instance of Moncure 
Robinson, Esq., Civil Engineer of the Reading R. R. Company, 
designed a new locomotive, intended to have great power for 
the heavy freighting purposes of that company. This engine 
was called the "Gowan and Marx." It weighed eleven tons, 
which was heavy for that day, but light as compared with those 
of the present. 

By the method of disposing of the weight upon the " drivers," 
it dreio one faindred and one loaded cars. This was a most valu- 
able step towards the settlement of the problem of cheap trans- 
portation of heavy freights on railroads. 

(4) M, Moncure Robinson a fait construire pour le chemin de 
fer de Philadelphie a Pottsville par Reading, qui est destine a 
transporter beaucoup de charbon, des locomotives non-seulement 
a six roues, mais a huit partagees de meme en deux trains, et 
d'une force tres-grande. On estime que leur puissance de trac- 
tion ira a 400 tonnes avec une faible vilesse. 

Une de ces machines, le Goican et Marx, a poiir diametre des 
cylindres 0'".322 ; la course du piston est de 0'".406. C'est la plus 
lourde des machines de la compagnie, et celle dont les cylindres 
ont le plus grand diametre. Cependant, a vide, elle ne pese que 
9812 kilog., et en marche que 11,100 kilog. Elle es bien loin, 
comme on voit, de celles qu'on emploie aujourd'hui sur les clie- 
mins de fer de I'Europe. Ainsi la compagnie de Saint-Germain 
a Paris a des machines a detente dont le poids a vide es de 16,500 
kilog., et oil les cylindres ont un diametre de O^^.SS. Avec de 
fortes machines comme celles-ci, on obtiendrait sur le chemin de 
fer de Philadelphie a Mount Carbon des resultats plus satisfais- 
ants encore que ceux qui vont etre indiques. 



72 

(5) "On one of its trips (February 20tli, 1840), it drew a train 
of one hundred and one four-wheel loaded cars from Reading to 
Philadelphia, at an average speed of 9.824- miles per hour, nine 
miles of the road being a continuous level. The gross load on 
this occasion was 423 tons, not including the engine and tender, 
which, if the weight of the tender is counted, equalled forty times 
the weight of the engine." 

See "Journal of Franklin Institute," 1840, vol. 25, page 99, 
Report of G. N. Nichols, Supt. Philadelphia and Reading Rail- 
road, which closes as follows: "The above performance of an 
eleven ton engine is believed to excel any on record in this or any 
other country. It may be doubted whether it has been excelled 
since. 

"How strangely this feat of the Gowan and Marx compares with 
the trials on the Liverpool and Manchester Railroad in October, 
1829, but ten years before, when all that was required of the com- 
peting locomotives was, that they should draw about three times 
their own weight, tender included, on a level track, five miles 
long, especially prepared for the trial. The great success of the 
Gowan and Marx, induced the Philadelphia and Reading Rail- 
road Company to duplicate the plan of this engine in ten engines 
subsequently built at Lowell, Mass. 

" In 1840, the Gowan and Marx attracted the particular atten- 
tion of the Russian engineers. Colonels Melnikoflfand Kratft, who 
had been commissioned by the Emperor Nicholas to examine into 
and report upon the various systems of railroads and railroad 
machinery then in operation in this country and in Europe. 

" The result of their examination was favorable to the American 
system, and when the engineers above named made their report 
on the construction of a railroad from St. Petersburg to Moscow, 
an engine upon the plan of the Gowan and Marx was recom- 
mended as best adapted to the purposes of this first great line of 
railroad in the Empire of Russia, and Eastwick and Harrison 
were requested to visit St. Petersburg with the view of making a 
contract for building the locomotives and other machinery for the 
road. 

" Mr. Harrison went to St. Petersburg in the spring of 1843, and 
in connection with Mr. Thomas Winans, of Baltimore, a contract 
was concluded with the government of Russia, at the close of the 
same year, for building 162 locomotives, and iron trucks for 2500 
freight cars. Mr. Eastwick joined Mr. Harrison and Mr. Winans 
at St. Petersburg in 1844." 



73 

(6) Although the propeller in its cruder forms had been at- 
tempted many years before, no practically successful application 
of the screw seems to have been made until 1836 and 1837. At 
which time the result was accomplished by Sir Francis Pettit 
Smith and Captain John Ericsson respectivelj'-, between whose 
claims of priority there has been a difference of opinion. 

" Within the past ten years the screw has entirely replaced the 
paddle in transatlantic navigation, the weight of marine engines 
has decreased one-half, the steam pressure has quadrupled, and 
the consumption of coal has diminished two-thirds." (North 
American and United States Gazette.) 

For further information on this subject the reader is referred to 
the "Encyclopsedia Britannica," Article " Steam Navigation," 
and Bourne's "History of Screw Propulsion." 

(7) The Siriusleft London for New York April 4th, 1838, and 
arrived at New York April 22d, making the clear voyage in 
seventeen days. 

The Great Western left Bristol on April 7th, 1838— three days 
later — and reached New York on the 23d, making the voyage in 
fifteen days. 

(8) Of these presses the Walter seems to take precedence in 
rapidity of work and simplicity of construction. 

The inventors of the Walter Printing Press claim for it the 
following points : — 

"1st. It is a perfecting machine — printing on both sides at the 
rate of 12,000 copiies per hour, or from 10,000 to 11,000, including 
stoppages. Ample provision has been made for overcoming the 
difficulties of set-off; and, as there are only four composition 
rollers used, and great care has been taken to make the cutting 
and delivering processes certain, the liability to interruption is 
reduced to a minimum. When changing from one reel to another, 
the arrangements are such that the delay scarcely exceeds a 
minute, and the reels are kept as large as possible for convenient 
handling. 

"2d. The labor employed when the Walter Press is in opera- 
tion consists of two lads taking off, who suffice to expect and 
count each sheet, and a striker to start the machine and look 
after the reels as they are unwound. One overseer can easily 
superintend two presses ; capable of turning out, with six un- 
skilled hands, perfected sheets at the rate of from 20,000 to 22,000 
6 



74 

per hour, stoppages ijicluded. With four of these presses — twelve 
lads and two overseers — ' The Times' is now printed at the rate 
of more than 40,000 copies per hour ; (i. e.) in less than half the 
time and with one-fifth the number of hands required by the 
fastest and best printing machines previously in use. Moreover, 
layers-on, who are highly-trained workmen, and must be paid 
accordingly, are entirely dispensed with. 

"3d. Attention is directed to the extreme simplicity of the 
Walter Press in all its details. There is nothing about it liable, 
with the usual ordinary care, to get out of order ; while a practi- 
cally unlimited rate of production is secured by the repetition of 
stereotype plates on additional machines to any extent that may 
be required. Thus, newspapers of large circulation can be printed 
with maximum economy of time and labor, and with a freedom 
from risk in the process of production never before attainable. 
The w^aste of paper may be stated at 5 per cent., but in connection 
with the change of system newspaper proprietors and printers 
will at once find that they obtain a knowledge of the kind of 
article which is supplied by their papermakers — how it counts 
and weighs per ream, and what degree of uniformity it is pro- 
duced — never before realized. There is a considerable saving of 
ink also, and in blankets and rollers. The exclusive use of 
stereotype plates releases the ordinary type from all wear and 
tear ; so that a fount lasts at least ten times as long as it could 
under the former system. It is hardly necessary to add that with 
the Walter Press the register must be practically perfect." 

The Walter Press is used by the London Times, London Daily " 
News, Edinburgh Scotsman, also by a paper in Manchester, New 
York Times, and St. Louis Republican. 

(9) "Mr. Wm. Sturgeon, a native of London, about the year 
1825, discovered that when wires of soft iron were placed within 
the coil of a conducting wire, they were rendered intensely mag- 
netic." — Annals of PMlos.^ vol. xii. p. 359. 

"Our knowledge of this subject was afterwards greatly ex- 
tended during the period from 1828 to 1831, by the researches of 
Professor Henry, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, at 
Washington." 

"The instrument first used by Professor Henry, in 1828, to illus- 
trate electro-magnetic action, consisted of an iron bar, two inches 
square, twenty inches long, bent in a horse-shoe form, and weigh- 
ing 21 pounds. The keeper weighed 7 pounds, and 540 feet of 
insulated copper wire were wound in nine coils of 60 feet each 



75 

around the liorse-shoe shaped bar of soft iron. From the experi- 
ments which he made with it, he proved that a small battery is ca- 
pable of producing great magnetic effects, if the spirals of tlie coil 
are numerous, and the resistance to the passage of electricity is 
not very great. He also showed the effect of A^aryiug the lengths 
of the conducting wires and the intensity of the current, and found 
that six short wires were more powerful than three of double the 
length. When the current was made to pass through all of the 
nine coils, the magnet raised seven hundred and fifty pounds. 

" Subsequently, Professor Henry constructed two of the largest 
and most powerful instruments of this kind at present known. 
One now in the cabinet of Yale College, weighing 59^ pounds, 
which sustained a weight of 2063 pounds ; another, belonging to 
the cabinet of Princeton College, N. J., of 100 pounds weight, 
which could support 3500 pounds, or one and a half tons." 

(10) Prof. Henry says that, ''in 1832, nothing remained to be 
discovered in order to reduce the proposition of the electro-mag- 
netic telegraph to practice. I had shown that the attraction of 
an armature could be produced at any distance, and had designed 
the kind of a battery and coil around the magnet to be used for 
this purpose. I had also pointed out the fact of the applicabiliiy 
of my experiments to the electro-magnetic telegraph. I make a 
distinction between the terms discovery and invention. The 
first relates to the development of new facts ; the second to the 
application of these or other facts to practical purposes." — House 
Case, p. 93. (See Lectures on Magnetic Telegraph, by Laurence 
Turnbull, M.D., p. 39.) 

(11) The most improved forms of the magneto-electric machines 
are those of Holmes, of Siemens, of Wild, of Ladd, and of 
Gramme. 

(12) While speaking of the Battery, let us not forget nor ignore 
the inventions of one of the benefactors of science of our own 
country, who, a little more than fifty j^ears ago, feeling deeply 
the want of more convenient forms, devised arrangements, which 
were, at that time,' by far the most perfect which had been con- 
structed. 

I refer to the Calorimotor, Deflagrator, and Tilting Batteries 
of Dr. Robert Hare, late Professor of Chemistry in the Medical 
Department of the University of Pennsylvania, described in 
1819. 



76 

The various forms of the modern non-constant Battery, in 
which either the plates are lowered into the liquid, or the liquid 
is lifted to the plates, are in mechanical principle but a reproduc- 
tion of his Calorimotor and Deflagrator, affording but another 
illustration where science, like history, often repeats itself. 

(13) This statement is true at least of Mr. Alvan Clark's great 
refractor lately erected in the National Observatory, Washing- 
ton. 

Keclaimer of Dr. Draper. 

(14) In my memoir " On the production of light by heat" (Phil. 
Mag., May, 1847), I established experimentally the following 
facts : — 

1. All solid substances and probably liquids become incandes- 
cent at the same temperature. 

2. The thermometric point at which some substances become 
red hot is about 977 Fahrenheit degrees. 

3. The spectrum of an incandescent solid is continuous ; it 
contains neither bright nor dark fixed lines. 

4. From common temperatures nearly up to 977^ F., the raj^s 
emitted by a solid are invisible. At that temperature they are 
red, and the heat of the incandescing body being made conti- 
nuously to increase, other rays are added, increasing in refrangi- 
bility as the temperature rises. 

5. "Whilst the addition of rays so much the more refrangible as 
the temperature is higher is taking place, there is an augmenta- 
tion in the intensity of those already existing. 

This memoir was published in both American and European 
journals. An analysis of it was read in Italian before the Royal 
Academy of Sciences at Naples, July, 1847, by M. Melloni, 
which was also translated into French and English. 

Thirteen years subsequently M. Kirchhoff published his cele- 
brated memoir "On the relations between the coefficients of 
emission and absorption of bodies for light and heat." A trans- 
lation of this memoir may be found in the Philosophical 
Magazine^ July, 1860. 

In this memoir, under the guise of mathematical deductions, 
M. Kirchhoff, taking as his starting-point the condition discovered 
by Angstrom in 1854, respecting the relations between the 
emitting and absorbing powers of different bodies for light and 
heat, among other things deduces the following facts. I give 
them as they are succinctly stated by M. Janiin in his " Cours 
de Physique de I'ecole Polytechnique" C1869). 



77 

1. Ail bodies begin to be red-liot at the same moment in tlie 
same space, and become wliite-hot at tlie same time. 

2. Blaclt bodies begin to emit red rays near 525° C. (977° F.) 

3. Tlie spectrum of solids and liquids is devoid of fixed lines. 

4. The rays first emitted by black bodies are red ; to these 
are added successively and continually other rays, increasing in 
refrangibility as the temperature rises. 

In his celebrated memoir, and in subsequent publications on 
the history of spectrum analysis, M. Kirchhofi" abstains from 
drawing attention to the coincidences I am here pointing out, 
except that in a foot-note to his memoir he makes in a single 
word allusion to mine. But from this no one would infer what 
were really the facts of the case, and accordingly in the biblio- 
graphical lists subsequently published, in works on spectrum 
analysis, such as .those of Prof. Koscoe and Dr. Schellen, my 
memoir is not noticed. 

I earnestly solicit those who take an interest in the history 
of spectrum analysis to compare my memoir in the Philosophical 
Magazine, May, 1847, with those published by M. Kirchhofi" 
thirteen years subsequently, on the radiating and absorbing 
powers of bodies (Phil. Mag., July, 1860), and on the history 
of spectrum analysis (Phil. Mag., April, 1863). 

JOHN WILLIAM DRAPER. 

University, New York, July 8. 

(15) Among the more recent additions to our knowledge in 
this branch of science, we may mention, the explanation of the 
cause of dissonance, and the analysis of quality of tones and a 
physiological theory of music by Helmholtz ; the discovery in 
the ear of the cords of Corti, by the investigator of that name, 
the duration of acoustic impressions, and the mapping of sound 
waves, by Mayer, of the Stevens Institute, Hoboken; the influence 
of the transverse movement of air upon sound, by Tyndall ; and 
the multitude of instruments for illustrations, constructed, and 
many of them devised, by Koenig. 

(16) A number of our institutions of learning have within re- 
cent years enlarged their scope of instruction, by associating with 
their classical and literary department, a "Department of 
Science," in which certain practical branches are taught, and 
made elective by the student. The more prominent of these are, 
the "Lawrence Scientific School," of Harvard; the "Sheffield 
Scientific School," of Yale College ; the "School of Mines," of 



78 

Columbia College; and the " Scientific Department," of the Uni- 
versity of Pennsylvania. 

Among the institutions which have been active in advancing 
the study of applied science in this country, the Massachusetts 
Institute of Technology would seem to claim especial notice on 
account of the peculiarities of its organization, and its influence 
on other scientific schools. Founded in 1861, according to the 
plans, and under the direction, of Prof. William B. Rogers, it set 
the example of making laboratory- work a chief means of scien- 
tific training even in the early stages of study ; and was the first 
to take the important step, since so generally followed in this 
country, of organizing a '■''Physical Laboratory,'''' where the stu- 
dent, after being instructed in the simple manipulations, is gradu- 
ally trained to the more diflficult researches in experimental 
physics. See " Objects and Plan of an Institute of Technology," 
1860, and " Scope and Plan of the Massachusetts Institute of 
Technology," 1864. 



In introducing the third speaker, the President 
said, that about nine years ago there was an attempt 
made to remodel the working machinery, as it were, 
of the Institute, to fit it for a greater usefulness, and 
certain changes were deemed necessary in the hj- 
laws. It Avas decided to abolish the offices of Re- 
cording and Corresponding Secretaries, and in place 
thereof to appoint a Resident Secretary, who should 
be a salaried officer. It was required that he should 
be a gentleman of literary and scientific attainments. 
ITow there was in our midst a young man, a graduate 
of our university, who tried to study law, but drifted 
into science, and who Avas rapidly making for him- 
self a name as a scientist. He was selected to fill 
this new office, and right well did he do so; but 
others saw and recognized his worth. In our neigh- 
boring State across the Delaware, there lived for 
many years a man noted as an engineer ; at his death 
he gave from his great estate abundant means to 



79 

found a school for the teaching of mechanics. The 
trustees, having prepared a suitable building, looked 
about then for some fitting person to act as President, 
and our very useful secretary soon received a call to 
take this position of greater usefulness. We cannot 
but feel proud that under his care this school for 
mechanics has prospered, and to-da}^ we welcome its 
President to our midst. Ladies and gentlemen, I 
introduce as the next speaker. Prof. Henry Morton, 
President of the Stevens Institute of Technology, of 
Hoboken, K J. 

ADDRESS OF PPOF. HE^RY MORTOK. 

Ladies and Gentlemen : 

In discussing my theme this evening I propose to 
begin at the beginning, and set out from the very 
origin of the subject, and yet, so rapid are our modern 
modes of thought as to travel that, if we do not run 
oft" the track, ten minutes will easily see us safely 
arrived at the end of the matter. 

My first proposition is a brief though comprehen- 
sive one. It is simply this. Ladies and gentlemen, 
The earth moves! And though as I perceive you 
are not electrified by this important statement, I yet 
hope within a few minutes to show you that, taken 
in its iull and true significance, this assertion may 
be as wonder-exciting now, as in its simpler meaning 
it was two hundred and fifty years ago, when a 
Galileo only dared to say it in a whisper. 

At the present time we have gone far beyond 
being surprised to hear that the fixed and solid earth 
is not the stationary centre of the universe, and are 
not even made giddy when we think that it is 
spinning at a rate of about 1000 miles an hour (for 



80 

the equator), and flying around the sun with a velocity 
of 1000 miles a minute, or about 1000 times faster 
than an express train behind time. We are not even 
shocked to learn that, beside these two motions, our 
earth, as part of the solar system, is on its travels 
through space in an unknown path at an unknown 
rate ; or as it may be otherwise expressed, is one of 
the planetary lambs which the sun-shepherd is lead- 
ing through the celestial fields, browsing as they go 
on such shooting stars, meteors, or comets as may 
come within their reach. Familiarity has enabled 
us to accept as perfectly commonplace and natural, 
all these ideas of instability and motion, and we now 
would only be astonished if some one were to say to 
us that the world did not move. 

Aggressive science, however, which is itself never 
willing to rest, but makes each advance only a new 
base for further progress, will not leave us even here, 
but points us to an entirelj^ different class of motions 
and says: IN'ot only does the world and every object 
in the universe move, but it is the motion of all matter 
which gives it those properties by which loe recognize it. 

In other words, if the matter of the universe were 
to be brought to a state of rest, it would no longer 
be the universe, it would no longer be matter as we 
can comprehend that idea ; or in yet other words, 
matter is matter, the universe is the universe as 
much by reason of the motion of its individual 
atoms as by reason of their actual existence. 

Example is better than precept, and I will there- 
fore take a case and give you two views — the exter- 
nal or artistic, and the interior, or scientific of the 
same scene. 

We are in a valley among snow-capped mountains, 
and before us a lake spreads its mirror to the sky. 



81 

"Ko breath of air ripples its surfjice, uo wavelet 
breaks upon its beach, nothing is there but absolute 
repose. So saj's the artist, and painting such a scene 
he calls his picture " Silence," " Eepose," " The Lake 
of Dreams," or some such appropriate title. 

Xow, however, let us look at that same scene with 
e^-es touched by the wand of science, and opened to 
see beneath the surface of things. What do we then 
behold? Is there any longer an impression of re- 
pose ? Of rest ? Of sleep ? 

Look at that mass of water with its mirror-like 
surface. A\"e see there a perfect Sebastopol of flying 
missiles, water atoms hurled in clouds from the sur- 
face into the air, water atoms hurled back from the 
air into the water surface. .It is by such action as 
this, science shows us, that evaporation takes place, or 
the invisible though rapid passage of the liquid water 
into the viewless air. 

The whole mass of the water is likewise thrilling 
through with those heat motions, of which if de- 
prived partially, it would freeze into ice, and if 
robbed utterly, would shrink into some formless 
horror, of which even the imagination of science can 
form no picture. 

We turn now to the breezeless air, and here again 
we see that it is air, and not some densest solid, or 
nameless nonentity, only because of the ceaseless 
flight of its countless molecules, which, rebounding, 
jostling, ricocheting, glancing, but ever on the wing 
of motion, make it the light, elastic fluid which we 
know as air. 

And if we next turn to the towering rocks and 
snow-capped peaks, we will find the same conditions 
in a modified form. All undoubtedly thrill with 
the quick heat-pulse which is the very soul of matter, 



82 

and in probability owe their distinctive character- 
istics to peculiar modes of motion among their atoms. 

But it is needless to go further in this direction. 
It is evident that in the view of science the " universe 
of matter" is as truly the " universe of motion." 

Realizing this fact, is there any evident deduction 
to be drawn that bears upon the object which has 
brought us together this evening ? 

Placed as rulers and as student of this universe of 
matter in motion, and beconiing rulers and masters 
of its resources just in proportion as we are apt and 
faithful students, what is the branch of study to 
which we should most devote our attention ? Evi- 
dently that which treats of matter in its relations 
to motion, and this subject I need hardly say is 
known by the name of Mechanics, and is that to the 
development of which the Franklin Institute has 
directly and indirectly contributed for the last fifty 
years. 

That you may not suppose I have laid undue stress 
upon this point, allow me to quote a few words from 
a late enunciation of one of the greatest students of 
science, Helmholtz. " If, however (and the previous 
context gives these words the force of. As therefore), 
motion is the primordial change which lies at the 
root of all other changes occurring in the world, 
every elementary force is a force of motion, and the 
ultimate aim of physical science must be to deter- 
mine the movements which are the real causes of all 
other phenomena, and discover the motive power on 
which they depend ; in other words, to merge itself 
into mechanics." 

We may then fairly say that, in its relations to the 
universe at large, and to man's knowledge of those 
material surroundings on which his prosperity so 



83 

largely depends — the work of the Franklin Insti- 
tute, founded " for the promotion of science and the 
mechanic arts," has been a noble one judiciously di- 
rected ! 

"We roay, however, well ask if there is any reason 
why at this particular time, at this special epoch in 
the world's history, such a subject should be more 
than ever appropriate and desirable ? 

The comparison of national growth or human pro- 
gress with the development of a child, is of course 
familiar, and has been frequently suggested, but is 
none the less apt and fruitful in valuable indications. 

Thus we see in the infant, or in the infancy of the 
human race, at first only physical growth and de- 
velopment, the strength and muscular powers of the 
savage and of the barbarous nation. 

Then comes in the child the period of growing 
intelligence, first developed through the perceptions 
of sense and the workings of the imagination, that 
peripd w^hen the literature of the fairy-tale flourishes, 
and Cinderellas and Bluebeards people the world. 

To this w^e find, as a parallel in the history of the 
race, the period of mythology, and the " golden age" 
of the poets. 

Kext to this in the well-ordered training of the 
child comes the first idea of moral relations, of 
duty, of piety, of a divine superior ; and to this we 
find in the world's history the corresponding period 
of revelation, and the introduction and spread of 
Christianity. 

Then in the child comes the education in methods 
of expression. The child learns to read, to write, to 
express himself, and to grasp the thoughts of others 
in various lanofuas-es. 

To this we find a parallel in the age of reviving 



84 

learning, when the great schools of Europe were 
founded and flourished, and taught the classics, 
rhetoric, logic, and other cognate subjects, all having 
a direct bearing upon modes of expression. 

I>row when the child has mastered these prelimi- 
naries, Avhat is his next step, if he does the best for 
the development of his own powers, and for his use- 
fulness, to the world at large? You will at once 
answer me, he goes out from the shelter of the scho- 
lastic walls into the world of nature, he comes in 
contact with its facts, the laws of the material uni- 
verse, and aided by the physical strength, stimulated 
by the imagination, restrained by the moral sense, 
guided by the intellectual training which he has 
received, he begins the real battle of life, and wrests 
from nature, by his own exertions, that which shall 
sustain and benefit himself and his species. 

What then may we look for from the race which, 
at this present point in its career, has gone through 
the same preparation, but that it should address it- 
self to the same work, and with frame, heart, soul, 
and intellect sufficiently trained for the task, turn to 
the great labor of developing from the inexhaustible 
stores of the universe, the vast material benefits 
which there await its research, to awake into benefi- 
cent energy ? 

For ourselves, and with reference to our own 
action in the future, this comparison, which we have 
just made, is also suggestive. 

This great boy (the human race) we see is in his 
workshop, and if we want to give what will be of 
most use and pleasure to the sturdy youth, we must 
not select new toys, new fairy-tales, new tracts, or 
new grammars, but new tools. 

He needs no new games for his amusement, no 



85 

new romances to develop his imagination, surely no 
new religions to guide his soul, and no new lan- 
guages to express his thoughts ; but he can make 
the best use of any quantity of neio tools^ and of the 
opportunity and instruction for their employment. 



At the subsidence of the emphatic applause 
offered to Prof. Morton, the President of the Insti- 
tute, Mr. Coleman Sellers, arose and addressed the 
assembly. 



ADDEESS OP MR. COLEMA]^ SELLERS, 

PRESIDENT OF THE FRANKLIN INSTITUTE. 

It is well nigh forty years ago, I think, that 
Professor James P. Espy, the storm king, as he was 
called, taught school in the Franklin Institute build- 
ing. The present model room was his school-room. 
Somehow, ever since the time when that enthusiastic 
old gentleman tried to pound learning into me — as 
was the wont in those days of birch rod and ratan 
rule — the Eranklin Institute has been connected in 
my mind with instruction, with learning, i^o more 
fitting time perhaps than now, at the close of its 
fifty years of usefulness, to tell how it has taught, 
how it can teach, and what need there is, in these 
days of progress, for certain kinds of instruction not 
yet obtainable in our common schools. 

It was in the first years of this century that Dr. 
Birkbeck, of Glasgow, conceived the idea of lecturing 
to artisans on subjects that would aid them in their 
callings. His scheme took well ; his lecture-room 
was crowded, and able men volunteered to aid him 



86 

in his laudable enterprise. During the years 1823 
and 1824 the first Mechanics' Institute took shape 
as the outgrowth of what Dr. Birkbeck had done, 
and he very properly was called to preside over the 
first one founded in London. Mr. Brougham, after- 
wards Lord Brougham, was prominent in its organ- 
ization. This was being done in England at the 
very time our Franklin Institute of the State of 
Pennsylvania for the promotion of the Mechanic 
Arts was coming into existence. With the founda- 
tion of the London Society all England and Scotland 
seemed to waken to the need of scientific instruction 
for the mechanics and artisans — and in all the great 
towns, even in some villages, Mechanics' Institutes 
sprang up, to lead a short life of active usefulness, 
then to languish and to die. These Mechanics' 
Institutes were not organized by mechanics — they 
were originated by philanthropic persons, who, see- 
ing the need of a higher education of the working 
classes, spent their time and their money in this 
direction. They failed, simply because those for 
whom the}^ were created would not avail themselves 
of their advantages. 

Our Franklin Institute was from the beginning a 
Mechanics' Institute, in one sense of the word. It 
taught by lectures, and sometimes by classes, but it 
was always more than was contemplated by the 
societies abroad. If I may so express myself, it was, 
and still is a democratic learned society ; it is not 
exclusive. ^No well-behaved person is excluded from 
its membership. All who desire to reap its benefits, 
or to aid it in its great work of promoting the 
mechanic arts, can join it. This is not so with the 
so-called learned societies of this and other lands. 
They select their members from among those who 



87 

have already distinguished themselves in the arts 
or sciences, or are likely so to distinguish them- 
selves ; hence, their membership is confined solely 
to the learned of the land. I^ow, mark the differ- 
ence in our case. Learned men join our society, and 
in its hall come in contact with those who may be 
unlearned, so far as books are concerned, but better 
informed in some special art or trade. Theorj^ and 
practice are brought together, and each helps the 
other. Distinguished scientists admit that they are 
indebted to this association for information of a 
practical character, probably not readily obtainable 
otherwise. While on the other hand we, each one 
of us, know how we have been benefited by their 
learning, and with what attentive earnestness we 
listen to their words. 

In the youth of our Institution, when this now 
vast city was comprised within narrow limits, when 
those who frequented our halls were less scattered 
than now, each day and each evening there came 
together a little band of congenial spirits — mechanics, 
artisans, and professors, who labored earnestly to 
carry out the great aim of the society, and who were 
at all times willing to sink their personality in the 
good of the society. Their work was the w^ork of 
the Franklin Institute, not of its individual mem- 
bers. Among those men who gave their best time 
and energy to this labor were many men neither 
mechanics, artisans, nor professsonal scientists, but 
lovers of the arts and sciences. Looking over the 
pages of the members' roll — many such names occur 
— few, indeed, of the early ones are here to listen to 
my words to-night. With one, however, I have 
talked much of late, and from him learned very 
many interesting facts relating to the Institute. It 



88 

was in his office that some of the first meetings Avere 
held that led to its organization, and his knowledge 
of its workings extends through its entire career. 
We had earnestly hoped that he would have ad- 
dressed vou this evening, but his strength was not 
equal to the task. So I promised him to saj to you 
it is his firm conviction that the vitality of the In- 
stitute is in the union, the close union and mutual 
reaction of theory and practice. He recounted many 
incidents to show how meritorious inventors had 
been aided by disinterested theorists ; how timely 
warning from the better informed in what had been 
done has saved many a fruitless ramble over already 
well-trodden ground in the search for novelties. My 
first recollections of the workings of our society are 
inseparably connected with liis name. He wa^ a 
member of the first committee upon which I served, 
and his wonderful memory was my astonishment 
then as it is now. His mind was an open encyclo- 
paedia to us all, and it was from the kind interest 
taken by him and by others like him in our scientific 
labors that we received the greatest encouragement 
in our work. I have ventured to take this kind 
gentleman, Mr. George Washington Smeth — as an 
example of disinterested labor — because he was 
neither a mechanic nor a professional scientist, but 
nominally a lawyer (I know not if he practised law), 
a scholar by preference, and a lover of all that tends 
to advance the material welfare of his countrymen. 
It was the work done by him and many others like 
him in the active, thankless duties of the scientific 
committees, that made many of our most valuable 
reports of so great use to the world at large. Among 
these hard workers were 3'oung men who subscribed 
their names to the constitution with no calling as 



89 

yet selected to mark their position in life — many of 
them since known to fame. In that long roll, too, 
may be found names of men now noted and honored 
in the arts, who in the beginning inscribed after 
their signatures callings and trades little indicative 
of their after greatness. These men were educated 
practically in the Franklin Institute; it was there 
their minds received direction. Thus the Franklin 
Institute has prospered in its teaching — in its teach- 
ing of men by men. Out of the town that saw the 
beginning of our society fifty years ago, Philadelphia 
has now spread over an entire county, and in area 
is, perhaps, the largest city in the world under one 
munici})al government, and to-day it stands in the 
front ranks of industry. To say it is the Manchester 
of America is saying but part of the truth. The 
world in cono;ress at Paris and Vienna recoo-nized 
this, and gave first honors to our workmen. Phi- 
lanthropists from abroad visit us and ask to be shown 
the place where the working people — not crowded 
in filthy tenement-houses and hovels — live each in 
his own home — his neat, comfortable home ; and 
they seek to know how far education has progressed 
among the makers of the wealth of the world. They 
know full well that the rudiments of science, at least, 
are needed by all mechanics in all trades ; they know 
full well that the o-reat universal lano-uao-e of man- 
kind, the language of the pencil, the picture language, 
is the very foundation of all the arts ; everything 
that is to be made, at least well made, must be first 
drawn, must find its shape on paper. They visit 
our common schools, and they note that the pupils 
have plenty of grammar, plenty of geography, and 
spelling, and reading, and so on, but barely rudiments 
7 



90 

of science, and scarcely any drawing whatever ; this, 
too, when the world is crying aloud for technical 
education. How strange it must seem to those who 
come to us from the old countries, where the schools 
of art are side by side with the museums and the 
great art galleries, and where all these great collec- 
tions are open to their advantage, each and every 
day of the week, where the use of the pencil, the 
only universal language of the world, is taught with 
the a, b, c's of their native tongue. We can indeed 
say, that for well nigh fifty years, the Franklin In- 
stitute has tried to remedy this defect. There almost 
only can the young mechanic obtain the principles 
of the art. It is true, our noble Academy of Fine 
Arts throws open wide its doors to those who can 
take the time to avail themselves of its classes, and 
the School of Design for Women, an outgrowth of 
our Institution, does its part; the High School, with 
its night classes for artisans, helps in the work ; but 
of the thousands of children who pass each year 
through our common schools, how few can avail 
themselves of the chances, how few know the need 
of the art that underlies all other arts ? 

Our common school education gives us traders, 
gives us shopkeepers, but it gives us no artisans. I 
know not if this can be remedied, but I do know 
we require some other training for our sons and our 
daughters. 

But two years hence all the nations of the earth 
will be represented in our park — they will bring 
with them the work of their hands and their brains. 
Then will our people be able to see and judge for 
themselves how early education reacts on art, and 
how much need w^e have for cultivation and refine- 
ment to exalt the faculties of our artisans. Go into 



91 

our great industrial establishments, and seek out the 
modellers and the designers, the draughtsmen, speak 
to them, and many times you will be greeted with 
the accents of a foreign tongue. True we pay high 
wages, and the educated designers of Europe will 
make their home on our shores. But why not train 
our children to fill these places? Most unquestion- 
ably there is a freshness of thought and an origin- 
ality of conception in the products of American 
ingenuity, but they lack, sadly lack in some respects, 
a cultivated and refined appreciation of the beautiful. 
There was a time not fifty years ago when the 
workshops of Philadelphia competed only one with 
another. Trade was confined to narrow limits ; with 
little competition there was little need of economy 
and careful calculation in the conduct of our facto- 
ries, ^ow the railroad, the steamship, and thought 
borne on the wins^s of lio^htnino- have broken down 
all geographical barriers, and the workshops of 
Philadelphia find competitors in the workshops and 
cheap labor of the oldest lands. How are we to hold 
the van in this strife but by more excellent produc- 
tions more cheaply produced ? How are we to achieve 
this result but by putting more brains in our work? 
Say not to me that learning unfits our men for work. 
I tell you proper instruction is what our working 
people most need — what the Franklin Institute has 
■ever tried to give them. There is in the world 
drudgery to be done, drudgery that needs no brain 
work, but there will be through all times enough 
stupidity to satisfy all the wants in this direction, 
and intelligent laborers will make their heads save 
their hands to their own profit and the benefit of the 
whole human family. That a means of educating 
our young men and young women in the direction 



92 

of practical industries is greatly needed is evinced by 
the change now progressing in our higher schools. 
Over our broad land technical colleges are s[)ringing 
up, and students are crowding their halls. In our 
midst the University of Pennsylvania, coupled with 
whose history is the name of Franklin, whose pro- 
fessors and teachers are our own active fellow-mem- 
bers, but a little while ago reared for itself vast halls 
for learning, yonder on the west bank of the Schuyl- 
kill — this, to make room for science, to enable our 
young men to fit themselves to be engineers, to be 
architects, to be what they will. The learning there 
acquired is with an aim. The student has a profes- 
sion before him, and he prepares himself for his life's 
work. These schools and colleges do but a part of 
the work ; it is with men as men, they must continue 
their training. 

Fathers and mothers of my dearly loved country, 
believe me no want is so deeply felt in tbis land as 
the want of practical, technical education. Give to 
your sons and to your daughters a sound foundation 
of useful learning; teach them the pleasures, the 
dignity of skilful manukl labor ; make their minds 
leaders of their hands, and teach their hands to be 
Atilling servants to their minds. It was but the 
other day that a chemist in a rolling mill would 
have been laughed at by the practical iron masters 
of the land, is'ow, a leading engineer says on the 
public rostrum, that the future of our iron interests 
is in the hands of our chemists, in the laboratory, 
and in learning. Would you have your children 
take part in this great work ? Remember that in 
all our workshops there are places for but few of 
them as learners, as apprentices. Give to them, 
therefore, that instruction that will make them of 



93 

value in the land, that will cause them to be selected 
for places of trust ; for the contest in the world's in- 
dustries in the future is to be fought with brains, 
not with hands alone. 

The Franklin Institute has for fifty years been 
laboring in the direction of the scientific education 
of mechanics, and proud are its members of the work 
it has done. Yet how true the words seem, that 
came to us last Tuesday in our Public Ledger, wdien 
it told the story of this Society's usefulness, and said, 
" its achievements, w^e believe, have been more 
thoroughly recognized and appreciated everywhere 
than here in its ow^n home. This is said to be cha- 
racteristic of Philadelphia, that it does not ' exploit' 
its own good works. It would be well if our people 
were of a difterent habit in this respect, and it 
would be better if, at the fiftieth anniversary of the 
Institute on Tuesday next, at Musical Fund Hall, 
there should be inauo-urated a new era of the recoo^- 
nition and appreciation of its merits, its services, its 
great usefulness, and its honorable record. If Boston 
possessed such an institute, with such a history, its 
renown would not be allowed to become dim at home 
by any lack of public proclamation of what it is and 
what it has done." 

Citizens of Philadelphia, your Institute's useful- 
ness is limited only by its pecuniary means. Its 
fifty years' work has been done with but little money 
to do it w^ith. ^o liberal endowment has placed it 
beyond w^ant, and rigid economy has barely eked out 
the yearly contributions to meet the most pressing 
wants. Shall it be so in the future ? It is not asked 
that you give to it, hoping for no return. What we 
want is your good names added to our list of mem- 
bers. In a population of well nigh a million, scarcely 



94 

900 names are on our roll of members. All the 
world abroad knows and honors our Institute. 
Talented men in distant cities ask to be, and are 
proud to be, considered members of it. Will not 
you join us in our task, and when the Centennial of 
our nation's freedom is being celebrated in our midst, 
say to your guests that you are members of the 
Franklin Institute ? 

Working men of Philadelphia, let me rather say 
fellow-workmen of America, my most earnest sym- 
pathies are with you in all your efforts towards self- 
improvement. My .own path in life started from the 
school-house through as lowly walks in life as any 
of yours. If fortune has led me to higher usefulness, 
believe me it has been not without diligent applica- 
tion and hard study. To you the Franklin Institute 
opens its doors and affords you a sure way of in- 
creasing your store of knowledge. Attend its lec- 
tures, be present at its meetings, give from your 
store of practical experience freely, take in return 
what others can give to you. It will be to you as it 
has been to me and to others — a school of great 
value. Trust me, the teaching of man by man in 
frequent intercourse is the most potent means of ac- 
quiring knowledge, and knowledge well applied is 
indeed a power. 

At the close of Mr. Sellers's address the meeting 
adjourned. 



LINES 

ON THE FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE FRANKLIN INSTITUTE. 

BY AN OLD MEMBER. 

Our golden Pentecostal year has passed, 
And the new Fifty whitens in the east. 
How few and far between the Fathers stand 
Though sought with keenest eye amid the throng ! 
As memory summons the old roll anew 
The chilling silence falls upon our hearts ; 
At length with strange deliberate haste they speak 
And point us to the bright propitious sky 
That glows above and w^ell predicts the triumph. 

Those fifty years ! shall we not spare a glance 
To mark their mission and the sheaves they bring, 
Ere stern Oblivion swings his shadowy door 
Which ever hides our best and loved too soon ? — 
Those seven-times-seven-and-one may well atone 
For the slow slumbering thousands which precede them. 

Surely the era is our Franklin's own ; 
And let no other name with his intrude, 
As harness' d on the iron gossamer 
The silent thunder under his strong spell 
Yoked with the carrier dove, submissive bears 
Our griefs or greetings through the ambient sky. 
Or (strange alternative) with equal speed 
Invades the horrid depths of ocean's caves. 
Stirring their monsters with unwonted thrill 
While hurrying by charged with the fate of nations ! 
The Twins of Fire and Water, whose joint might 
Archimedes dare not anticipate, 
Attained their manhood's stature in this term, 
So emulous to urge the towering barque 
Through angriest seas, or drive the rampant car 
That on its thousand miles of prairie plain 
But gathers breath to climb the mountain side ! 



96 



We range these startling marvels in the van, 
Yet nobler victories are on oiir scroll, 
AVhich ask no heralding b}'- sound of trumpet, 
But, like the morning light, the evening dew, 
Fall indiscriminate and silently : — 
The myriad Loom that surfeits Fashion's call ; 
The tireless Keedle even in the race ; 
The subtle Essence of the cumbrous Lamp 
Spread through dark iron arteries by miles 
Yet answering to our beck in every loft, 
In cellar, hall, or chamber, day and night ; 
The Planting Plough and rolling Reaping Car 
Which seem to hail each other in the field 
And mix their tasks in wondrous harmony ; 
The Anvil shaped and burnished like a shrine ; 
The Hammer quiv'ring like the humming-bird ; 
Light's mild mysterious picture which presents 
Face of Apelles from Apollo's hand ; 
Again, the seeming ravage of the Rainbow, 
That plucks its tints apart as in the fable 
Penelope undid her patient web. 
Yet while we gaze begins the retribution — 
From the dread depths of space comes laden back 
With hidden truths extorted from the stars ; 
And last, the Sovereign Press, ordained to hurl 
The bolt that surely smites or sanctifies 
Art's endless work through the wide realm of mind ! 

Such are our peaceful triumphs that look down 
From the blue arch of half a centurj^ 
As constellations o'er the heads of all ; 
Whose smile surrounds — pervades our model dwellings. 
Where labor shares refinement without pride, 
As Philadelphia's peculiar fare ! 

The iridescent rays of scattered power 
Our Institute collects and concentrates. 
Then sends them forth in scientific phalanx 
To conquer nature and to bless mankind. 
This was the high ambition of its founders 
Who (like the steward in the parable) 
O'er the few things allowed them have been faithful. 
May those who follow have the full "ten talents," 
And well improve the new and larger trust ! 




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